Tag Archives: shoes

customize, footwear, repair, sneakers, sole, technology

East Village Shoe Repair Finds Footing In Brooklyn

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Under the JMZ train that runs along Broadway like a zipper attaching the Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods of Brooklyn New York, an old NYC favorite has popped back up to continue doing what they’ve expertly done for years.

East Village Shoe Repair moves to Brooklyn
      Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled footwear yearning to breathe free

The same footwear stretchers, buffing equipment, and years of experience that the fellas commanded on St. Mark’s Place has been transplanted to 1083 Broadway in Brooklyn, NY as part of the Brandhunters consignment store complex.  Think of East Village Shoe Repair as a hospital for your beloved kicks. Barring complete obliteration- there isn’t much that can stop EVSR from bringing your footwear back from near death. Resoling, re-lacing, regluing, reattaching, re-whatever it takes to get your favorite kickers back on the path- using top notch equipment from yesteryear- these guys can find a way if there is one. You might have another couple years left in those oxfords..

Congrats from Popdiatry on the new location! C

customize, ingenuity, Shoes

Thumbtack Pant Leg Savers

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You know that thing where your pant leg droops down a little bit below the heal, and the bottoms of your pants begin to fray? Do you hate that? There are any number of straps, clasps, and ways to deal with this. You could roll up the bottoms a bit (meh), revel in the rippy fashion (bleh), move to a warmer climate and switch to all shorts; You could even carefully shop as to buy pants that are exactly the right length- though there is a fine line between “high-waters” and the prefect bunched up look.

Or you could:

Courtesy of a guy I saw walking down 6th ave.
Courtesy of a guy I saw walking down Avenue of the Americas

Late last year I was about to enter the NYC subway station at the corner of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue (Bryant Park). I remembered there was a decent dollar slice (of pizza) place a block south after 41st so instead I continued my stroll. That’s when I saw a guy walking with thumbtacks stuck in the backs of his shoes, keeping the bottoms of his pants bunched so they didn’t touch ground. He happened to go to that dollar slice place as well, where I was able to confirm that the thumbtacks were in fact serving the purpose of pant leg protection. I wasn’t going to further bug this fellow to get a sketchy poorly lit picture of his ingenuity, so I recreated his method in the Popdiatry photo lab.

Thumbtack Pant Leg Saver

I applaud this man’s thrifty, novel way to combat what I call fraying-pant-leg-condition. With all the custom spikes I’ve seen sticking out of footwear lately, I wouldn’t be surprised if this evolved into a hot trend some day.

3D Printing, footwear, Shoes, technology

Popdiatribe: Step Into The Future

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Tweet from Feetz Custom Fit Footwear
Tweet from Feetz Custom Fit Footwear

The above tweet was clipped from the account of Feetz, a company that employs 3D printing technology to perfect custom fitting footwear for folks with orthopedic problems such as different sized or abnormally shaped feet.  Using a proprietary “SizeMe” imaging process, Feetz asks customers to send pictures of each foot so their tech team can create proper fitting shoes you can slide on within seven days. Check out their site for more information, and a chance to be a beta tester.

Science fiction is indeed becoming reality. Footwear giant Nike, who used some 3D tech in the design of their Superbowl cleats (and at the time of this post, is looking to employ 3D modeling specialists), made news this month via a hint from designer Tinker Hatfield about a self-lacing system that resembles what Marty McFly sported in Back to the Future 2.

Video game company Konami co-branded with Puma to release some Metal Gear Solid high-tops. Eastman Footwear recalled 12,000+ pairs of Coleman branded children’s shoes due to a laceration hazard from poorly designed metal shoestring rivets. Writer Taryn Luna penned a great rundown of the latest batch of maximalist running sneaks. I purchased my first can of Obenauf’s Leather Preservative for boots to combat the snow, slush, and salt of New York and Boston this month; so far so good!

Welcome

The First Step

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I was a BMX freestyle bike-riding kid in the 90s who loved Vans, Adidas, Converse and Airwalks. Now I’m a self-employed grown man who wears New Balance, Finn Comfort, Naot, and Chippewas. Along the way I collected bits of cultural, structural, and historical information about shoes- footwear- kicks- sneaks. Popdiatry is the platform on which I will expand on these observations with imagination, curiosity and humor.

I believe that the first step toward world peace and global harmony is everyone wearing properly-fitting footwear.  We love the feeling of waking up and taking on the day with a fresh pair of shoes or boots to step into. On days when cheer and positivity seem hard to find- there are those same shoes or boots we wore when things were great. Time for a reminder. Is your pinkie toe suffering due to years of tight fitting? Time to expand.

Shoes have stories, brands have history. Folks have loyalty to certain shoe brands that can be fanatic in nature.  From steel-toe to flip-flop, Popdiatry will be an open-minded observation tower where I look forward to learning as much as I teach. From lace deck to welted sole, I will present and share information about footwear and feet in such a way that no other blog or magazine will. My sources will be cited, and pictures credited. Thanks for reading and be sure to check back often.

-Chris from Brockton