Shoemaker specializing in shoe uppers: stretching the shoe upper

The sound of stretching the upper in the boot. The recording was realized in Adam Cieślak’s Shoe Uppers Repair Shop at 3 Dąbrowskiego Street in Warsaw (Poland).
The shoemaker specializing in shoe uppers places in the shoe a wooden shoe tree (3D model of a calf) with which the leather upper will be stretched by 2 centimeters. The shoe tree is inserted with the use of a hammer. Then the craftsman needs to wait two days for the stretching to set. The leather will be covered with some special liquid preventing the shrinkage of the shoe upper back to its initial size. When the shoe is performed from high-quality (soft) leather, it is possible to stretch the shoe upper by up to 3 cm.
Services provided in the shoe uppers repair shop include the narrowing, widening and shortening of boots, stretching of shoes, replacement of zippers in shoes, sewing straps on too loose shoes, replacing buckles and elastic bands in shoes, sewing in shoe counters and replacing shoe padding. The shoemaker specializing in shoe uppers prepares also the uppers for shoes made to measure but nowadays, he much more frequently performs shoe repair works.

Sound recordist: Monika Widzicka
Photographer: Iwo Wachowicz
Video recordist: Iwo Wachowicz