

“Without his shoes, I couldn’t walk”: a cobbler with a mission - mdturnerphys
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024730849_madeinseattle12xml.html

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e40
Somewhat related, for years and years I've walked a lot (average is 4-5 miles
a day, every day). About 5 years ago I started having pain in the ball of my
feet and I couldn't walk much. I was about to give up, when I discovered MBTs,
which are a "rocker" style shoe. It saved me. Now, I have 4 pairs that I
rotate and I have many fewer issues. They gave me a scare a few years ago when
they declared bankruptcy, but they came back a couple of years ago.

I believe I have Morton's neuroma, and it makes sense that a rocker-style shoe
would help this malady.

Regarding the article, I don't know why some of these people can't just buy
two pairs of shoes of different sizes and just use the correct shoe from each
pair for each foot.

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Zikes
I would imagine that where there is an issue of feet of different sizes, they
also correlate to different heights. If you were to get two shoes of different
sizes they might individually fit better, but not correct the overall balance
issue.

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eggoa
He charges $550 to make the lasts (foot-shaped molds for the leather). And he
does about 30 pairs of shoes a yea --, not sure how many lasts. Maybe a 3D
printer could pay for itself in a somewhat reasonable amount of time?

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from_elsewhere
Lastmaking is much more complex than it might sound. It sounds like you're
hinting at an easier method of last design, but printing a replica of a foot
doesn't give you a last -- it needs to be sculpted to fit the foot throughout
the day, with appropriate adjustments for foot expansion, stretching, length,
etc.

The last also has an enormous impact on the external appearance of the shoe. A
custom dress last and a custom workboot last made for the same foot will
differ signigicantly, and not in a way a computerized process could easily
adjust for. (I'm sure it could be done, but it would take a concerted effort
by someone with substantial resources and access to tons of feet to measure
and study.)

The limiting factor isn't in last production, but rather design. And that's
not something that 3d printing will help.

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jessaustin
That's really interesting, but I'm not convinced that automation has no role
here. When a human sculpts a last, she must be using _some_ techniques and
rules of thumb, even if a large part of the craft is "by eye". It seems that
"starter" or "template" lasts could be produced using foot scans and whatever
rules the sculptor will divulge. Then the sculptor could use the templates in
making the final lasts...

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Retric
Sure, but automation is not free. Supose you could design a machine to make it
twice as fast for 10 million and sell them at 10,000$ a pop. Your world wide
market would need to be ~1,000 of them a year which is probably not even close
to realistic. You can't really charge more as the hand made approach is
reasonably fast and nobody is going to dump 20+K to buy one if it's only
saving the, a few hours a week.

PS: Feel free to play with the numbers but there is a reason so much of the
world is sill not automated.

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jessaustin
That explains why this wasn't done back in the industrial age. Lots of people
seem to think that manufacturing 3D objects is going to get much easier soon.

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n72
Somewhat surprised White's couldn't help him. They make absolutely fantastic
custom boots. I have two pair and they're easily the best footwear I've ever
worn.

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zubairismail
nice :)

