OPB Bill Shanor Program

2011 video segment by Oregon Public Broadcasting on Bill Shanor

Notes

• John Roberts, leatherworker studying with bill

• Tim Alden, apprentice of three years

• shoes, boots, and moccasins

• I love to think of unique ways of doing things, and I don’t think I’ve ever made the same boot twice.

• started with shoe repair, working for his father

• did finance in the service, but wanted to work with hands

• after one day, started managing a 15-man shoe-repair shop

• won national awards within two months

• had enough of repairing, did a ton

• first boots got attention at western show

• unique leathers

  • use black and red on the same boot

  • two-piece boot
  • turquoise iridescent triad

• lasts

  • “1200”
  • “Dr. Scholl”
  • more than 3,000 lasts in collection

• foot measurement

  • foot tracing
  • Brannock device
  • focuses on arch length
  • shows an example of a foot reading 8½ arch length and only 7½ foot length
  • customer’s minset:

    Everybody has a different perception. What fits? Well, the idea is to find out.

  • 40 or 45 minutes trying to figure out what a fit is to the person
  • builds up lasts with leather
  • about 80% of customers after fit

  • their foot isn’t fighting something in the shoe

• machines

  • skiver
  • 5-in-1

• making boots getting harder

  • moving into fashion shoes

    • real quantum switch from a western boot world

    • I like wild, crazy stuff

  • teaching
    • makes students do all the work
    • students leave “fried, tired”
    • “endured the ordeal”
    • about a third of them ready to go after a course

• sharing secrets

  • doesn’t understand why people are stingy

  • Give me twenty minutes. I’ll figure it out.

  • There’s plenty for everybody.

• most shoes sold today made in China

• can’t bring back US heyday

• joy of creating

• [shows of a photo of a beautiful pair of tooled natural leather over black leather packer boots]

  

• What do people create?