Benjamin teaches Two-Day Beginners Shoemaking Course at Prescott & Mackay in London.
Tutor: Benjamin John Hall
Q: How have you learnt your craft?
Benjamin: I enrolled at Cordwainers College at the age of 18 and studied there for four years. After graduating I began work in the laboratories of Clarks International as a trainee Technical Manager. This involved testing shoes made in China and instructing factories how to make Clarks shoes the way they’d been made in the UK for over 180 years. This is where the real learning began.
After a while I moved back in to design to become a designer for Men’s International division working in some of the largest factories in China.
I then went on to set up as a freelance designer which is what I do to this day, along with teaching and working on various other projects including my own more ideas-based work.
Benjamin's work from AW11 stocked in Harrods, Selfridges and Liberty
Q: What led you to working in shoemaking?
Benjamin: When I was 13 my passion was skateboarding. After some time my shoes would always get destroyed when they abraded on the grip tape (a sandpaper that covers the skateboard). Early solutions were ‘shoe goo’ a liquid rubber in a tube that you used to cover the affected area on your shoes with, it looked terrible, like a dog had your shoes in its mouth for a week. In the following years I watched ardently as designers addressed this problem and was fascinated to see and experience the skateboarding shoe evolve from something inadequate to a highly functional fit for purpose product.
Also, growing up in London you can’t help but notice the power of the shoe in identifying people from different social standings or subcultures. Shoes have always been about kudos and can speak a thousand words in the glimpse of an eye. This has always been interesting to me.
Q: If you had not discovered shoemaking, what do you think you might have become?
Benjamin: Maybe a photographer.
Q: What are the most important things you’re trying to impart to your students?
Benjamin: When I began my first job in the footwear industry an old man told me that shoemaking is an art not a science. At the time I didn’t fully understand what he meant but I soon came to realise how fundamental this is in understanding shoes. There are some basic rules or science in shoemaking but those rules are constantly bent to adapt to the specific shoe at hand. Some students can be flummoxed by this as they sometimes expect a rule to be steadfast and applicable to all situations, but it rarely is.
From the artisan shoemaker to the factories in China everything begins with the human hand: from designing a shoe, modeling a last, cutting a pattern, lasting an upper or molding a sole unit. Mass manufacture is only a larger scale artisan: in the way the artisan uses a tool a factory might use a machine, machines can help us, but they still need to be calibrated and operated by the human hand. And it is in this sense that shoemaking is an art not a science.
Benjamin In Class, With Student
Q: What piece of equipment do you find indispensable in your work as a shoemaker, and what in your experience would you advise an aspiring footwear designer might invest in first?
Benjamin: As a shoemaker I find a scalpel indispensable, as opposed to a clicking knife. As for the aspiring footwear designer it depends what type of footwear designer you want to be but a good place to start would be with a pencil and a pad of paper.
Scalpel v.s Clicking Knife
Q: Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Benjamin: It depends on the project. Freelance commercial work is very different from my own shoemaking work. In my personal work I’m mostly interested in the current zeitgeist and how we think about things and how we can change how we think about things. It’s really more about ideas, in which case the shoes become a medium to express a thought or a feeling.
Q: Would you recommend going out on your own? And advice to people who want to set up their own shoe business?
Benjamin: I think anyone wanting to set up on their own will need to consider whether they have sufficient financial backing and the right contacts to do it. That’s essential. Also I think it’s important not to confuse what it is that you want to do.
Making and designing shoes is one thing but running a business is an entirely different ball game, and perhaps not quite as fun!
Q: What has been the highlight of your career so far?
Benjamin: There have been many highlights: winning national design awards, designing shoes that have sold more than 150,000 pairs in one season, having design work published and having the opportunity to work on more artistic projects, in particular a current collaboration with Alexandra Groover which we screen at London Fashion Week.
Benjamin's Collaboration with Alexandra Groover: Above - AW11; Below - SS12
Another recent highlight has been being involved in starting a new brand and having shoes I designed for AW11 stocked in Harrods, Selfridges and Liberty.
From Sketch: Benjamin's work from AW11 stocked in Harrods, Selfridges and Liberty
I have also been fortunate to travel the world on company expenses and have been able to experience working in some of the best factories in the UK, Portugal, India, Italy and China. And, I hope, having been able to inspire from time to time my students at Prescott and Mackay. Everything’s a highlight!
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To know more about Benjamin, watch the videos about his collaboration with Alexandra Groover, here for video 1, and here for video 2.
To know more about the Beginners Shoemaking Course that Benjamin teaches, please visit Prescott & Mackay website.
Tags: beginners shoemaking, Benjamin John Hall, shoe courses, Shoe making courses, shoemaking, tutor interview
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