Stitchdown Lee Miller Interview

Stitchdown Shoecast podcast by Stitchdown interviewing Lee Miller

Notes

Biography

• learned some of the secrets of Charlie Dunn’s Mexican bootmakers by learning Spanish and being earnest in his desire to learn
• Charlie Dunn never did fitters, and Texas Traditions doesn’t, either.

Fitting

• foot measurement
  • pedigraph working for Randy Merrell and ortho school
    • shows the bones
  • side profile
  • girth measurements with tape
  • contour gauge
  • Esquire magazine: Sam Lucchese using ink print and contour gauge to measure John Wayne
  • straight ball girth
  • easier to measure foot than do the last
• lastmaking

  • everything starts with the pedigraph

    • 31–41% of the job
    • what kind of arch
    • draw the insole shape
    • find tread point, tread line
  • get a proper tape measure
    • narrow
    • don’t stretch
    • not a cloth tailor’s tape
    • can use a strip of paper, but not exact
  • some tracing device
  • Handmade Shoes for Men
• can improve into your nineties
• takes all measurements at neutral, no assistance for walking or ortho correction, unless they ask
• Ball State ortho program
  • shaking is feeling foot
    • e.g. firm handshake
      • firm foot
      • rigid foot
        • high arch
        • straight heel
        • high instep
    • fleshy foot
      • probably pronates a lot
      • probably arch drops
      • low instep
      • low arch
      • “long heel”, i.e. lots of curvature in back
• doesn’t really look at way people walk, but ask if they have issues
• looking for clues
• there are certain kinds of feet
  • fleshy feet can tolerate tightness
  • rigid feet prefer looser fits
  • some features come in packages
  • crotchety famous people: feet fit the profile
• doesn’t really do running shoe store style gait evaluation
• pedigraph will show you
• fit the head by asking questions
  • e.g. find out they have a bad back, don’t make too hard to get on
  • fit sheet has comments section
• delightfully shaped last, looks elegant
• Shoemaker of Dreams
  • just hints
  • figure it out
  • all arch-related

Designs

• pinched prose
  • Charlie taught
  • asked not to teach others
  • teaches those who work with him
  • began in 1939
• barbed wire
• prickly pear
• added inlaid tulip for a German customer
• art form
• constantly asked for new designs
• no computers
• look at images online, but don’t copy
• have to learn how to draw

• you just get better if you keep trying

Maker Styles and Copying

• some rigid rules
• some don’t abide
• if maker living, don’t copy their stuff
• has makers ask to copy things politely, and says yes, e.g. copying boots he made for Willie Nelson
• better to be the person who says yes
• trade will disappear
• companies said no, now can’t find people to help them

Toe Shapes

• what people see
• Lyle Lovett loves box (snip) toe
  • kept pushing Lee to improve
  • hired someone who worked for Lucchese, they taught him
• elegant side profile

Heel Shapes

• clunky or beautiful
• gotta have the eye
• balanced
• great shape
• boot has to walk
• 10-8 typical last: 10/8″ standard heel height for cowboy boot
• can vary ⅛″ up or down
• beyond that, walks wrong
• shoe last e.g. 8/8 (1″)
• roper heel a shoe heel

Leather

• made two pairs of shipwreck Russian leather boots, cut up one hide, have a whole one
• so old and delicate that more of a conversation piece than a wearer
• replicates:
  • Baker Pioneer: brutal, really stiff
• shipwreck hide he has just to show people
• bad: snakeskin, lizard
• today popular: fish skin
• good: calf, cow, ostrich, kangaroo, sueded pigskin
• water buffalo calf not as good as French or German calf
• cowhide very dependable
• kangaroo dress boot lasts 40 years; calfskin won’t, will crack
• try to guide customers
• had one guy insist on stingray for commissioner of agriculture of Louisiana, trying to get a tannery opened there
• never wants to make stingray again
• frogskin a novelty, but rarely big enough, could be excellent
• color started coming off purple buffalo for an artist customer, tanner said out of luck, never bought from them again, made entirely new pair for her

Other Bootmakers

• always learn something from meeting people
• has been thrown out of other boot shops
• bootmaking is so hard, only those who don’t give up succeed
• they’re the future of bootmaking
• benefit the trade
• want what you love to continue
• Japanese, French, German, Swiss visitors
• side profile came from German student

• that’s what happens when you’re open is you learn stuff

• paid apprentices
  • continued Charlie’s practice
  • part- or full-time
  • can’t do all the work he has
• hang it up, become professional teacher
• teaching is fun and easy
• easier than making boots
• making every day is brutal
  • constant deadlines
  • pay bills
  • boots must be perfect
  • hardest is fit
  • every pair a test

Bad Day

• customer says it’s not right
• leather cracks, color comes off
• story: pair for performer, no help, said they’re horrible
  • had gone to boot store
  • store guy pointing out everything wrong
  • decided to refund him every penny, got boots back
  • wanted to dig a hole and bury them
  • Lyle Lovett came in, asked for them
  • remade to fit Lyle
  • wears all the time
• famous story about Ray Jones
  • walked out without paying, promised a check
  • maker into bank, customer coming out, met in front of bank
  • Ray punched in the face, ripped the boots off

  • if you want these boots, you know where to come get ’em

• when something goes wrong

Mysticism

• it’s all tradition

• merging of Mexican and European
• romanticizing of cowboy
• mythical person
• boots different than shoes
• you feel different
• in Vermont, boots were special; lace-ups were what Dad wore
• makers were mythical people
• romance to the trade

Charlie’s Funeral

• Walker told Lee to perform the song at his grave