JESS & KRYSTINA WOOTTEN

The word Cordwainer is the traditional term for shoemaker.

“Traditionally distinct from a Cobbler. Cordwainers make shoes from scratch where Cobblers repair shoes or piece shoes together from parts, this is where the expression ‘to cobble together’ comes from,” explains shoemaker Jess Wootten from The Wootten Workshop.

“I’ve always been a tinkerer, a maker, someone who loves to pull things apart to work out how they got put together in the first place.”

The Wootten workshop is a generational family business now run by Jess Wootten, his wife Krys and their daughter Quincy, alongside three staff. The business was founded in the 1970's in Adelaide’s iconic Jam Factory arts collective and has since moved to Ballarat, operating from an old World War 2 munitions workshop in town.

Jess’s parents were all-round makers, dedicated to handcrafting the world around their children.

To learn more about the craft of shoemaking, I asked Jess about what he found so inspiring while watching his
parents handcraft leather shoes. He quips, “The attention to detail, the focus and the time spent carefully crafting something struck me as much as the finished pieces did.”

“They built our family home and dad’s workshop from stone they literally dug out of the ground around our house. The care and attention applied to all of the things they created was hugely inspiring,” says Jess. “This attention, the meticulous and meaningful approach certainly imbued all that they created with far greater meaning than something merely bought.”

For Jess, the craft of shoemaking is etched deep in his most fond memories. “The tactile nature of my father’s craft has left a lasting impression too, the smells and sounds and the well-worn touch of hand tools all carry with them a huge amount of nostalgia for me,” adds Jess.

In his early 20's, Jess was at the end of his corporate career, working for GM Holden in their design department and becoming frustrated by the lack of hands-on creativity.

“So I set up a home studio and dragged out all of dad’s old textbooks, tools and materials and set about hand sewing a pair of single piece side lace shoes. They were somewhat medieval in their appearance I suppose, simple in construction and made from Vegan Tan leather, they had a wooden heel and leather sole.”

The following year Jess quit his job, enrolled in a shoe making course and bought a business. “Crazy, naïve and foolhardy, about a million hours of hard graft later and I’m beginning to get the hang of it,” says Jess.

The first ten years of his shoemaking career were spent making Orthopaedic footwear for hospitals and podiatrists. He says, “It was incredibly challenging work, but it was a pretty amazing way to learn about the anatomy of a foot and the necessity of well made, well-fitted footwear.”

“After moving the workshop to Prahran, we set about returning to our roots, honouring my fathers legacy and rebranded the company to Wootten,” explains Jess. “My focus was to merge the historical craft my dad had practiced with the more modern, manufacturing-based business I had bought.”

Over roughly 10 years Jess and his family have increased their made-to-order service, adding styles and expanding their offering. He says, “Around that time we introduced our first collection of leather goods. Although we are mostly known for our footwear, we actually make a huge range
of bags, belts and small leather goods.”

As well as creating leather aprons and tool belts, it’s the intricate way in which the Wootten workshop crafts its shoes that takes centre stage in a process that is truly awe-inspiring.

The made-to-order shoemaking process begins with a detailed consultation process, followed by sizing, styling, construction, leather cutting, hand-dying, sewing, holes are hand-punched and eyelets are set, before lasting, bottoming and finishing the shoes.

“There are a lot of different facets of the trade so you never stop learning,” says Jess. “The amount of detail required in the relationship between the customer and the maker are entirely unique to footwear, the old adage is the shoemaker ‘doesn’t fit the foot, they fit
the mind.”

The exemplar boot that defines the Wootten workshop’s bootmaking practice is the Gordon boot - named after the town the family lives in just outside Ballarat.

“It is a classic Derby boot based on an English officer’s boot. Given the climate in Gordon, the boot was designed to be rugged and versatile. I wear mine every single day of the year rain, hail or shine,” explains Jess.

“We make them in an incredibly broad range of colours and styles and on a variety of lasts. At last count the possibilities tally up to over a billion possible combinations, so they can quite literally suit any occasion.”

STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL, PHOTOS BY CHRIS TURNER

Wootten
wootten.com.au
Workshop -1/20 Elizabeth St,
Delacombe VIC