As we continue on with our 25th anniversary celebrations, we did something a little bit different and a little bit special. Hosted at our size? Carnaby Street store, we invited London Sneaker School to teach an intimate DIY workshop for our community.
Established in 2021, London Sneaker School has been teaching the art of shoemaking to the world in their own way. The collective has taught over 200 people how to craft footwear, offering an invaluable step up for designers and creatives, enabling them to start their own brands.
Set up in-store, we helped the guys from London Sneaker School create a workshop space with bench tables, pattern inspiration and lots of dye colouring. We provided our workshop guests size? aprons, so no outfits were hurt in the process.
After we took our seats, we were talked through the process of mixing our own colours from the patina dye and how these would transfer onto the new SKL OS 1.0.0: Oxford from the brand’s Open Source collection. The shoes are crafted from a veg-tan crust leather, which is an unporous and untreated leather ideal for dying and creating completely unique designs.
Meanwhile, as some of us were working on the latest trends in footwear, we hosted drinks and snacks for local members of the size? community to come and say hello, connect with like-minded people and watch the workshop take place.
As we were setting up, we found out a little more about London Sneaker School with a quick Q&A. Here’s how it went…
What sparked the idea to start the Sneaker School?
Jase: “London Sneaker School’s mission is to enable anyone to start their own shoe brand. When it comes to starting a footwear company, there are a number of barriers to entry, and for most people, it’s financing – there are a lot of startup costs! So we put a shoe factory in the city to teach people how to make their own pairs. From there, you can make your own samples and start to build your brand.”
“I’m personally passionate about enabling those who create the culture to profit from its products. And our goal is to help a wave of grassroots footwear brands shape the future of the industry!”
Tell us about your Open Source footwear collection?
Jase: “When it comes to teaching people how to make shoes, there’s a lot to learn, so we designed the perfect shoe to teach shoemaking. For the SKL footwear collection, we took 2 classic designs and reduced them down to their essence.”
“All SKL shoes are “open source”, which is a term from software development. It means you can download the shoe pattern, remix it, evolve it and make it your own for your own brand. Traditionally, brands have very tight IP laws around this. So we’re launching this shoe under our Creative Commons open source license, to unlock our students and give them a running start.”
“If you’re not here to make shoes, the SKL range can be hand-dyed at home or at our DIY DYE Workshops.”
Have you got any plans for the upcoming London Fashion Week?
Jase: “We do! We will be launching our shoes at London Fashion Week on 18th-22nd September. We’ll be running regular DIY DYE workshops (free to anyone who buys a pair) as well as a shoemaking course throughout the long weekend (spots are limited!).”
“This will be at our workshop in Angel, London and open to the public! So come on down.”
How did you learn to make trainers from scratch?
Jase: “I wanted to start a footwear brand, so I learnt how to make them. I’m a footwear designer, and my design career has also spanned hardware and software for a variety of brands. But it was my time working for tech startups that inspired our approach at London Sneaker School. Handmaking a shoe is an MVP (minimum viable product), a term used in startup tech companies. An MVP is an early version of a product with the minimum resources and costs you have to test and grow it. We took this approach, and London Sneaker School was born. Now we are launching our own shoe collection with SKL.”
What’s the most memorable event for the School?
Jase: “Last year, we collaborated with Nike + PSG on 100 custom Air Force 1s for PSG’s away kit release. It was a special one, but really the most memorable part is the people involved. Many of our students stay in touch, come back for events and also teach on courses and work on projects.”
Favourite sneakers?
Jase: “Hasn’t been made yet.”
See what else we’ve been up to at size? over on our blog.
