I have interviewed many Japanese bespoke shoemakers and they all mentioned one place in the early stage of their career, that is WFG, World Footwear Gallery. World Footwear Gallery is a Japanese shoe shop.
Let’s talk about the history of this shoe shop today.
Keiichi Fukada founded the business and he imported European dress shoes to Japan.
In 1991, he opened the first independent shop, which was named World Footwear Gallery in Kinkakuji, which is the current location.
At the beginning, the store was very small, and there were not many stocks of shoes, which were scattered in the store, so it gave people the feeling of Gallery.
the selling brands were Silvano Lattanzi, Alden, Crockett & Jones, Edward Green, and J.M.Weston. Because these brands are all pricey, and the space is limited, each brand had only a few styles of goods.
At that time, although there were many shoes made in Japan, there were not high-quality. With the rapid development of Japan, there was a strong demand for high-quality goods, and fans all over the country came to buy shoes. The development of the store was particularly prosperous.
Since the 1990s, the World Footwear Gallery has also started selling shoes made in Japan.
In order to promote local shoemakers, World Footwear Gallery opened up another area for them to use. Hiroyuki Yanagimachi set up a stall there in 1999.
Although it is not as large as Isetan’s men’s shoes department, WFG is still one of the few high-end dress shoes franchise stores in Japan.
One of the best sellers is Bollini from Italy.
This is a small workshop with only three people on the outskirts of Milan. The price of shoes is mid-range, but the upper treatment is in place.