My family are Canadian, my brothers and I were all born in Ontario. When I was 6, my dad got a job at the University of Otago and our family emigrated to New Zealand.
How did you get into shoemaking?
I got into shoemaking in my early 20s, and began learning how to make them about eight years ago. I had been asking shoe repair places if they’d take me on so I could get familiar with the processes and machines in a repair shop setting.
While I was working at Ayers Shoe Repairs in Dunedin, I met a woman called Lou Clifton, who had created her business — Shoe School — in Dunedin. Lou offered to help me learn about shoemaking, and in return I helped her with her shoemaking classes.
What was the first shoe you made?
I was working on a farm in Ontario, and I had been learning how to raise animals and grow food. I had been doing all kinds of homesteading and craft projects, and shoes seemed like a bit of a mystery to me. A maple tree had fallen down and I took a couple of chunks of the tree and whittled them into some soles for a pair of clogs.
A Mennonite neighbour who made leather collars for farming with draft horses gave me some scrap leather to nail [on to] the tops of my bases to make some clogs. I nailed the (way too thick) piece of leather to the primitive sole bases with carpenter’s tacks.
My first pair of shoes was a very asymmetrical, very chunky pair of wood and leather clogs.
And when did you discover your passion for cowboy boots specifically?
My background is in music [fiddle player], and the American utilitarian attire has long since made its way into the fashion of musicians and artists, so I was familiar with cowboy boots and engineer boots and was showing an interest in learning about making those styles.
I was seeking further education in my bootmaking, when Lou from Shoe School told me about the American cowboy boot makers and I got hooked on the style and the endless ways different people use their craftsmanship to merge art and utility.
Tell us a bit about being a shoemaker in New Zealand.
I was just starting out as a shoemaker in New Zealand, so I was taking on all kinds of different projects and trying different approaches.
I worked first in shoe repair shops doing stitch repair, then found jobs related to shoemaking such as doing some time at the McKinlays shoe factory and I did work for costume departments for films. As I learned the craft I began to make bespoke shoes of varying styles for my early patrons.
New Zealand hasn’t got a huge population and there isn’t quite the excess for luxury items and bespoke services that there is elsewhere, so when I wanted to specialise in a specifically American craft, I knew I had to go to the source.
Guthrie, Oklahoma: how did you found yourself there?
Guthrie is an historic town in middle America, where my first cowboy boot-making mentor Lisa Sorrell lives and works. I went to Guthrie to learn from Lisa Sorrell and found that there was another master bootmaker Ray Dorwart also practising his craft there. I was lucky enough to learn from both of them.
There’s also a decent concentration of world-class musicians in the area, and being a fiddle player I was thrilled to find that there was a thriving music scene here also.
I originally came in 2019 for a few months, and while I was in Guthrie, I met someone and I returned at the end of 2020 to pursue that relationship, and when I moved I was able to learn and hone my craft.
Can you describe your current work space.
Currently I have the great privilege to share a shop with my mentor Lisa. She has cornered off a part of her shop with all the tools and machines necessary for bootmaking. Bootmaking has some pretty big overheads and sometimes the equipment and tools are hard to find.
Lisa has given me a fully functioning space to practise my craft, and it has given me the luxury of being able to do so, while slowly piecing together everything I need for my own shop one day.
I like it here because it’s nice to have the company of others, and Lisa often invites other bootmakers to come work and visit, so there are a lot of ways to stay inspired.
It’s so cosy and nice here, it’s going to be difficult for her to get rid of me!
What is the process of making a boot?
In short — I start by taking eight measurements from each foot and leg, doing tracings and footprints.
From these measurements I build a "last" (the form the boot is made around) and if it goes well it will fit your foot perfectly. The last is very important — there isn’t much room for error with the fit of a cowboy boot as there are no adjustments or wiggle room with elastic or laces or anything and you want it to be beautiful as well as have function.
Then I make a pattern for the top of the boots, and play around with design based on the requests of the client. I will make leather choices and design choices and then begin cutting out raw materials, taking them from 2D to 3D.
I put the tops together and then pull them over the last. Then I build out the structure of the bottom of the boot that ensures that it is balanced and the function of the boot is such that you will walk with comfort and ease.
There’s as much time that goes into the function and structure as there is the aesthetics and then beauty of the boot. My boots take me between 60 and 100 hours from start to finish.
What are the biggest challenges of a career as a bootmaker?
I think the biggest challenge for bootmakers in the modern age is that it’s difficult to fit into the wheels of commerce in a way that makes sense in how it’s generally experienced.
There’s more than enough work to go around where I’m living — that’s not the issue. The issue is that as a craftsperson who makes the boots from start to finish — it’s slow and laborious. We live in a world of fast fashion and exploitative labour. There isn’t as much room for economic growth in the typical sense in the shop of a craftsperson — unless of course we take the route of outsourcing and cutting corners.
The craftsperson faces the challenge of having to maintain the integrity of the craft and practise it in such a way that is aligned with their values, staring down the reality of an economy that encourages growth and excess.
Do you have a favourite/s pair you’ve made?
Oftentimes my favourite pairs are the ones that I’ve just finished. As with art, sometimes an idea is executed and then that urge is satiated and it’s time to build on it and move forward.
My favourite pair currently is a pair of boots that I made for myself that are 20 inches tall and are made from Benedictine French calf with a single row of sea foam stitching. They aren’t necessarily my "favourite" work I’ve ever done but they are special to me because they were an experiment in trying some new methods and ideas, and they represent a significant turning point in my creative life.
What have been some career highlights so far?
Being able to do something that I love and get to interact with people, knowledge and art the way I do is meaningful to me in a way that trumps all of the acknowledged forms of success.
I’ve been blessed with the amount of support and encouragement I’ve received privately and publicly. Accolades and articles and what-not are always a thrill but the slow and steady building and practising of a creative life will always be the lasting thrill.
From time to time fun things come along like getting to make items for films and be worn by fancy people, or Lyle Lovett liking my posts on Instagram.
But once upon time Lisa Sorrell was my bootmaking hero — and I got to become friends with her and learn the craft from her, so that’s a pretty big highlight already in my view.
How often do you get back to Dunedin?
Dunedin and New Zealand are my home. What have you got planned/coming up for the year ahead?My family and community are very much there, so I tend to jump on any opportunity to come back. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to come back once a year or every other year.
I’ve got way too much planned for the year ahead!
Firstly I have my patrons to keep up with who I will be continuing to make boots for. They’re my top priority. I have a couple of art-piece boots to make that will be featured in a museum exhibit. I have plans to create a collection of boots to exhibit that will be presented as a physical show.
And 2025 will be the year I formally "launch" my business and curate its direction for the future.
