In today's post, I will share with you the journey of one of my students, Marcia Brown, who successfully completed my online shoemaking course, and now she has launched a private label shoes brand-"Marcia Brown Footwear".

 

The shoe-making knowledge and skills she acquired helped her successfully manufacture her own shoes. She creates her own prototypes, chooses the best quality materials and controls her footwear brand production.

 

Marcia Brown had never had any shoemaking experience before starting to learn shoemaking in my online shoemaking course, and now she owns her own shoe brand.

 

As a beginner in shoemaking, it’s always difficult to take the first step, but if you’ve heard of Marcia Brown’s experience (you’ll see a full interview at the end of this article), you’ll see a way to make your own The path of shoes even launched its own shoe brand.

 

The first step for beginners in shoemaking

So how do you start learning to make shoes?

 

For Marcia Brown, it took her 6 months to gather the courage to actually practice shoemaking and soiled her hands, so she only watched my shoemaking class before that.

 

The most difficult and important step in the shoemaking process is the first step.

 

This is not rocket science, shoemaking is a craft, and applying everything you learn will not happen before you start doing it.

 

As Marcia said in an interview, you just need to do it—"Go for it!"

 

You need to understand how simple it is. When you practice, you will do more and you will gain experience. When you gain experience, you will do better, and every time you make progress as a beginner in shoemaking, it will become easier.

 

Note: One of the obstacles may also be collecting shoe-making tools and materials, because people think you should have many different shoe-making tools. Obviously, you can start making shoes with minimal tools and materials. If this is your case, please check out this article "Beginner's Shoemaking Tools and Materials: The Definitive Guide for 2019".

 

Student--First pair of shoes--Marcia-02

This is the first pair of shoes (flat ballet shoes) made by Marcia.

 

You can see in this picture that this piece is not perfect, this is how it looked when you first started making shoes.

 

-The throat line is not ideally curved, so the seam looks uneven

 

-The heel surface needs to be smoother and shiny

 

* The sole treatment is great (very great, Marcia)!

 

Despite these tiny flaws, these flat-soled ballet shoes are real shoes, I guess they were worn by Marcia. I think this is very important for any shoe maker, because all these mistakes that are natural to any shoe maker will be resolved in every pair of shoes.

 

Having said that, let's take a look at these black flat ballet shoes. This is also the flat ballet shoes Marcia made while practicing and gaining experience. Can you see the difference?

 

Student-pattent-balletsr-Marcia

This is a completely different story. These flat ballet shoes look cute.

 

student-

Marcia focuses on making shoes for people with foot problems. In the interview, she explained our huge demand for this kind of shoes in the luxury footwear sector.

 

With this in mind, Marcia makes shoes for herself and her sister. This is the starting point——

 

"I can make shoes for others."

 

Follow the shoemaking procedures, from simple shoemaking to advanced

I keep emphasizing the importance of order in shoemaking learning. If you are a beginner in shoemaking, if you are just starting to learn to make shoes, what you do first is very important.

 

You can ignore my suggestion and jump up to make boots, sneakers or anything else, but this will only affect your progress in making your own shoes.

 

In the interview, Marcia told me that she just decided to make all the shoes in accordance with the shoe-making plan of my online course. In the end, she understood how beneficial to her progress in shoemaking that learning different shoemaking techniques and different methods to freely make any shoes she wanted.

 

Take a look at the different shoe types she made: high heels, high heels, slingback high heels, Muller sandals

 

Student Pump Prototype Marcia

Student Sandals Prototype Marcia

Student Lu and Archetype Marcia

Marcia Brown's progress in shoemaking is a perfect example of my creation of such a program.

Beginners have 0 knowledge and no experience, so the correct order of learning will be the basis for your professional production of shoes, which means that shoes are not only good-looking but also comfortable.

 

If it is the 1Year Shoemaking project, I will take you from the basic footwear structure (such as flat ballet shoes) to the entire process of making 15 kinds of shoes, and provide you with the most difficult type of footwear (such as English trim Shoes) skills.

 

..... Or my beginner plan, you will get the correct basics and skills to make classic footwear (flat ballet shoes, high heels, Oxford shoes, derby shoes), giving you the opportunity to create more by yourself.

 

We focus on the order of learning because we focus on results.

 

I don't want to teach you DIY projects, my purpose is not to "follow" classes.

 

I want to give you the freedom, skills and knowledge to make the shoes you want.

 

Shoemaking students launch shoe brand

This is the right way to understand what type of shoes you wish to produce as a business.

 

Marcia focuses on the niche market of "shoes for people with non-standard feet", focusing on the use of high-quality materials to make luxury shoes.

 

She decided that the footwear she was going to make was a sneaker for that niche market, but it was important to remember that she made this decision after making all other footwear types.

 

She understands what footwear she can make in the best way

 

She wanted to design shoes and had a good idea,

 

She has the most freedom in making footwear.

 

What do i mean? What are sports shoes?

 

This sneaker is based on two footwear structures: Oxford shoes and Derby shoes.

 

So even before she started making sneakers, she had the experience and knowledge of how to make other patterns, believe it or not, but this is the most important part of sneakers.

 

Now, you can see her beautiful sneaker design below.

 

Student Sports Shoes-Marcia

Student sports shoes-Marcia-02

Student sneakers prototype Marcia

Smart shoe

I make shoes, I design shoes, and my time is very precious. So my method of making shoes is what I call "smart shoes". I will not delve into it, you can read the full article about it "Smart Shoemaking: How to switch from a beginner to making your own shoes"

 

One of the main ideas of this method is to create a basic model, work, and do a good job of the basic model.

 

Now, when you have this good basic pattern, you can and should reuse it for other shoe designs you want to make. This is how I work and how I teach students.

 

I am very happy to hear Marcia say that she uses this method in her work.

 

This is a bullet-proven system and we should all use it.

 

in conclusion

If you want to learn how to make shoes and want to make comfortable, hard-wearing shoes, not just a DIY project, then you will need to do it yourself.

 

Anyone who is willing to learn and work, practice and hone shoemaking skills can do it.

 

I’m very proud of what Marcia Brown has achieved and where she is going next, and it’s important to share this with you.

 

If she can do it, so can you.

 

You have a problem with your feet, learn how to make shoes for yourself,

 

You consider your own shoe series, shoe business, learn craftsmanship, make your own prototype, and control what you are making.

 

It's all up to you, and it's feasible.

 

Quoting Marcia's "Just do it", take the first step in making shoes.

 

This is a long interview. Marcia shared a lot of great suggestions. I am 100% sure to help each of you.

 

Watch the interview and comment to let Marcia know and appreciate her work.

 

You can find the shoes factory-xindesheng on her website and social accounts.