In a unique collaboration, Skolyx can now offer hand welted workwear boots from the Indonesian brand Midas Bootmaker. One of the most acclaimed players from the booming quality shoe scene in Indonesia, which is attracting more and more interest internationally.
This is a collaboration we are extremely proud of. Skolyx is the first European retailer ever to offer Indonesian hand welted workwear boots, this from highly reputable Midas Bootmaker (the workwear brand of Winson Shoemaker, which is considered to make Indonesia's best classic dress men's shoes). We are also one of the first retailers in the world to offer handmade Indonesian boots as Ready to Wear, RTW, outside the home country. The price of these, given the quality and level of craftsmanship, is simply amazing: €499 ($466 excl. VAT). We have received a limited number of three models: a Service boot in brown pull-up leather, a Service boot in medium brown roughout leather, and a Moc toe boot in brown pull-up. All boots are unique for this collaboration, the Service boot is a version of Midas normal version but with fewer rows of stitching on the uppers, for a cleaner look. The Moc toe boot is a brand new model for Midas, developed together with us at Skolyx and only available through this collaboration
Indonesia is one of the world's foremost centers for the manufacture of workwear boots, a tradition that dates back to when the country was a Dutch colony, but has evolved and been refined over the decades since the country became independent in the 1940s. Uniquely, however, everything is still done almost exclusively by hand, not with machines that pull uppers over the lasts, Goodyear machines and McKay machines for stitching and so on, but with awl, needle, knife, hammer etc. Despite the high level of craftsmanship and quality, prices are low in an international comparison, as wages and living costs in Indonesia are relatively low, hence the explosion of global interest in Indonesian boots and shoes in recent years. There are around 20 different manufacturers of this type of footwear, many in and around the city of Bandung, which is a bit of their equivalent to, say, Northampton in England. In almost all cases, however, production is very small-scale.
Lasted by hand.
Hand welting.
The hand welted construction is considered the finest shoe construction there is.
In the case of Midas / Winson, it’s a small workshop of eight people, producing only about 30 pairs of shoes a month. The work is led by Emil Rahmana Putra. He founded Winson Shoemaker in 2014 in his garage, and set up a proper workshop of his own with employees in 2017. In the early years, the focus was on workwear boots, but interest in hand welted men’s dress shoes grew quickly, and partly took over the focus. To streamline and make it clearer to customers, in 2021 they then separated Winson for more pure dress shoes and boots, and started Midas Bootmaker for workwear boots and casual shoes. Midas / Winson has been hugely acclaimed by people from around the world. For example, Stitchdown, the world's leading site for workwear boots and shoes, writes: “Winson makes some of the most impressive dress shoes, we don’t think it’s a stretch to say, in the entire world. Midas is the basically brand-new, more casual offshoot of that business, with a focus on more rugged boots that still feature Winson’s immaculate patterning, finishing, and just overall feel of 'there’s really something special happening here'."
Listed below are the full specifications of these hand welted shoes, and how they differ from standard Goodyear welted shoes:
- Lasted by hand, using pliers and hand hammered nails. When the upper is pulled over the shoe last, this is done with two different machines on standard Goodyear welted shoes.
- Insole made of thick vegetable tanned shoulder leather where the holdfast for the welt seam is carved out by hand with a sharp knife. On regular welted shoes it's a slightly thinner leather insole with a canvas strip glued to it, to which the welt is stitched.
- The heel stiffener and toe puff are made from the same type of leather as the insole, where it's split into thinner pieces and these are then cut and skived by hand to act as stiffeners, which when attached by hand treated with starch-based paste which makes the leather stiff when dry. On regular welted shoes, the toe cap is made of celastic (plastic-impregnated textile that is heated and then keeps the shape of the last as it cools) and the heel stiffener is usually made of celastic or leather board (leather dust mixed with glue) that is preformed, in some cases (as on TLB Mallorca Artista) of real leather but often also then preformed.
- Welt stitch sewn by hand, with awl, needle and twisted thread. When the leather strip that runs around the shoe is attached to the upper leather and the insole, the seam on regular welted shoes is sewn with a Goodyear machine.
- Sole stitch sewn by hand. The seam that attaches the welt to the outsole, the one that is removed and remade when you resole the shoes (until the welt becomes too worn and needs to be replaced as well) and which is sewn with a McKay sewing machine on regular welted shoes.
- The heel is built up layer by layer, and pegged by hand from both the bottom and the inside of the shoe. Almost all factory-made welted shoes use pre-built heels that are put on the shoes in one piece and pegged by machine.
We then use two different types of leather for the three models we have in stock now. One is a medium brown roughout leather (the difference from full reverse calf suede is that the surface is not as evenly buffed) with a lot of character. This comes from the local Cisarua tannery, a family-owned tannery that started in 1949 and has seen growing global interest in recent years due to its high-quality products. Then a very durable medium brown pull-up leather which will develop great character over the years. It was developed by a friend of Midas' founder Emil, who buys local hides and his own tanning agents, then travels to a tannery in Yogyakarta where he rents some tanning drums and equipment for a short period, and stays there and tans the hides himself. The batches are therefore very limited, and when they run out it may take a long time before he can go back to the tannery and make new leather.
Pull-up.
These are boots that are made to be worn and put through the rigours, and will only look better and better with age. Really solidly made in thick leather, both in terms of the uppers and the insole leather, that takes some time to break in but then becomes one with your feet. Can be resoled an unlimited number of times, thanks to the hand-stitched construction. Boots to love - a lot, often and for a long time.
Below, a number of photos of the shoes. You'll find all three models here.
