New drop of Midas x Skolyx hand welted workwear boots

We continue our popular collaboration with Indonesian Midas Bootmaker. The price of these, given the quality and level of craftsmanship, is sensationally good. We have brought in a new model, and restocked the sizes of several of our existing ones. As before, there is a limited number of these shoes we receive, since the production capacity is small in the Midas workshop. The shoes are made entirely by hand (except for the machine sewn upper), they are lasted by hand, hand welted, and with a hand stitched sole.

A new model
New this year is a cap toe service boot made from durable dark brown roughout suede (the difference with full reverse calf suede is that the surface is not as evenly buffed). This comes from local tannery Cisarua, a family-owned tannery that started in 1949 and in recent years has seen growing global interest due to its high quality products. Made with hand welted Veldtschoen construction, which means that the upper is turned outwards and sits on top of the welt (while the lining is still attached with the welt seam to the sole of the shoe, as on standard hand welted shoes), this makes them even more resistant to water. The soles are Dr. Soles lovely and durable Supergrip soles.

Restock of existing models
Although we restock the sizes a couple of times a year, we often run out, since many people have realised the greatness of Midas' boots. Now we have once again restocked several of our previous models. Firstly, the Cap toe service boot in dark brown and medium brown pull-up leather, a leather with fantastic character that has received much praise, with Dr Soles Supergrip soles. Then a service boot without cap toe in medium brown pull-up, which has Dr Soles' studded rubber sole. And then the mid-brown moc toe boot, only available at Skolyx, with Dr Soles lightweight wedge rubber sole.

Special leather
The pull-up leather we use is the one developed by a friend of Midas' founder, who buys local hides and his own tanning agents, then travels to a tannery in Yogyakarta where he rents a tanning drum and equipment for a short period, and stays there to tan the hides himself. Batches are therefore very limited, and when they run out, it can take some time before he can go back to the tannery to make new leather.

Great shoe tradition in Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the world's leading centres for the manufacture of workwear boots, a tradition that dates back to its days as a Dutch colony but has been developed and refined in the decades since the country gained independence in the 1940s. What is unique, however, is that everything is still done almost exclusively by hand, not with machines that last the shoes, Goodyear machines and McKay machines for sole stitching and so on, but with an awl, needle, knife, hammer, etc. Production is in most cases very small-scale, Midas / Winson is a small workshop of eight people making only about 30-40 pairs of shoes a month.

Made to be used hard
These are boots that are made to be used hard and subjected to tough conditions, and will only look better and better over the years. Solidly made in thick leather, both upper and sole leather, which requires some time to break in but then becomes like one with your feet.

Below the new model and others that we have restocked the sizes of. You can also find all these here. Price €504 ($410 excl. VAT for those outside).