Winson shoemaker is the top talent from Indonesia, considered one of the best shoemakers in Southeast Asia, I am very glad to have the oppotunity to talk with the man behind, the real Winson, Emil Rahmana Putra.
Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Emil Rahmana Putra, I’m from West Sumatra and leaving my hometown to study informatics engineering in Bandung.
I played guitar in a band that I build with my best friend, but I stopped because I need to work to get money to pay my rent in Bandung and my study.
I started selling cheap leather shoes.
How did you fall in love with shoes?
Fun fact when I see a guy with a tank top and ripped jeans, but they wear a good leather boots, it change their looks, so that I think the shoes or boots you wear can change your style.
How did you start thinking of making shoes instead of buying them?
Back to 2014 when I sold cheap leather shoes, a lot of customer complained, so I started to improve my knowledge about shoes and boots.
I couldn’t find people to make the shoes I want, then I started learning by myself.
How did you learn shoemaking? Are there many traditional shoemakers in Indonesia?
I learn shoemaking from internet, YouTube and blog, such as Shoegazing, Shoesnob, Carreducker, shoesandcraft, St. Crispin video on youtube.
I also visited a couple of workshops in Bandung to see how they made the shoes too.
For last making, lucky me I have honored to talk, discuss and sharing about last making with one of ex bespoke shoemaker from London, he shared a lot of knowledge about last making with me.
I see you have both workwear shoes and dress shoes, how can you achieve both excellence as they are totally two different worlds?
I was making work boots style, but by time I think its boring so I start learning about dress shoes, and I can’t just stop making the work boots style since it is how Winson started, so I manage to split my teamwork in workshop.
Who are the famous shoemakers influencing your shoemaking style and technique?
Yohei Fukuda, Eiji Murata, Yim, Daniel Wegan, Patrick Frei.
Which country is your biggest customer base till now? And which country is coming up?
I have a lot of order of the dress shoes from Australia and Singapore, now I start taking order from japan and HK.
For the workboots, I have a lot of order from USA and Canada.
How is the business of Winson? What product range do you offer?
We only offer MTO for now, I have another 3 worker to help me here so I can make 7 pairs of dress shoes a month and 7-10 pairs of workboots a month.
We offer personal custom last for the dress shoes, and Bespoke Service will follow in the near time, but for now I do take bespoke order from close friend too, so I can get more experience on it before its officially launch.
What is your plan for 2021 and the near future?
Just to keep everything consistent, I will stop taking order for workboots on Winson, but I make another brand for it which will launch in Feb. 22.
Please say something to Chinese shoe lover.
I really looking forward to make shoes for customers from china 😉
Price: MTO 450 USD
Waiting Time: 5 months