Buying tip – Vass for Shoegazing Sarek

I’m proud to present the Vass for Shoegazing Sarek, a derby boot made of vegetable tanned leather from the small Swedish tannery Tärnsjö. It will start selling at the event Shoegazing Super Trunk Show 2015 which is held this Saturday in Stockholm, but will also be available afterwards.

Shoegazing Super Trunk Show is the world’s largest event for quality shoes open for the public. On the Swedish version of Shoegazing there will be a lot of focus on it this and the next week, but since it’s mainly Swedish people visiting it will be bit less here on the English page, the posts will probably feature stuff from it but in shorter versions so to speak. At the event Vass, Meermin, Carlos Santos, Riccardo Bestetti and Maftei will exhibit and sell shoes. Also participating are Gaziano & Girling bespoke who showcase their shoes, Italigente sell the for Shoegazin shoe I’ve made with them and on display are their current collection, it will be bespoke shoemaking live with Skomakeri Framåt, Janne Melkersson and Tony Slinger, and we have a scene programme where Pelle Björkman from Björkmans Skomakeri will host a patina school, there will be Swedish Championship in shoe shining, and also a panel discussion on how we can get even more people to buy quality shoes. The event is held together with the main partner Brunngård who is a wholesaler of shoe care and shoe accessories, and with the partners Spiga 3 which is a menswear shop in Gothenburg, and the bag and accessory brand Oppermann London.

A very versatile boot made of vegetable tanned Swedish leather.

Me and the moderators of Shoegazing’s forum (Swedish only) who also are the co-organizers of the super trunk, Joakim Berggren, Roland Olsson and Adrien Combier Hogg, has together with Vass developed a boot that is unique for the company. It is the first time that Vass makes a larger series of shoes from leather provided by a tannery that’s not their regular own providers. The model is a boot inspired by Edward Green’s iconic Galway model made of leather from the Swedish tannery Tärnsjö. It is a derby boot with brass eyelets and four pairs of speed hooks, with a “wing” on the sides of the shaft, and with a toe cap. It is made on the P2-last (or New Peter as it’s also called) which in our eyes are perfect for a boot like this, with just the right height of the toe and a slightly more generous fit but with a good, relatively tight heel and normal instep. It is fairly normal in size. The boot has a single Dainite-sole, which makes it very versatile as it can easily handle the woods and really slushy snow, but also works well on dry winter streets in the city without being too bulky.

In profile with the wing at the bottom of the shaft.

Vass for Shoegazing.

Single Dainite sole. Vass, as almost everyone who do the sole stitch by hand, don’t do a full seam on rubber soles. Most use only glue, but Vass has chosen to stitch the toe part as reinforcement.

Tärnsjö is a small, venerable tannery that house’s in a small village with the same name located in the middle of Sweden. Here they have since 1873 refined the art of making vegetable tanned leather of very high quality. The leather used in the Vass for Shoegazing boot is their so called Upholstery Leather with a beautiful natural grain-character, which has a thickness of between 1.1-1.3 mm, in the shade 8697 Chestnut. It is semi-aniline dyed, which means that it’s first colored all the way through and then received additional color treatment of the surface for the shadeto keep its original tone better. However, this leather do get the color variations and a natural patina faster than usual chrome tanned aniline dyed leather. I’ve seen other shoes made with Tärnsjö leather and they get a truly amazing, personal character over the years, something that will be reinforced witht grain pattern being flattened out in different amounts to different parts of the boot, from being almost flat in the toe cap where the  leather is lasted quite hard, to be completely in their natural grain at the soft parts of the shaft.
This boot is made entirely of chrome-free leather, as both the upper leather, lining leather, insole and toe and heel stiffenrers are of vegetable tanned leather.

Tärnsjö’s upholstery leather in chestnut is a midbrown shade with slight red in it.

The toe cap.

From above.

Vass for Shoegazing Sarek will be sold druing the super trunk, where Vass will bring pairs in sizes from 40.5 to 45 in half sizes, but only one or a few copies of each. They have some leather left and can take orders as well, if a size runs out, but it is limited. It will cost € 590 including laden stretchers, which is a really good price for a hand welted high boot. The pairs that aren’t sold at the event will be up for grabs afterwards, if you contact info@vass-cipo.hu, and as mentioned you can order it as well as long as they have leather left.

The aim of this boot was to make a boot that we ourselves wanted to own, great for heavier conditions, and with natural Swedish material.

The shoes in sunlight.