All of our standard shoe lasts are also available as custom shoe lasts. Simply select one, choose “Custom” from the Level of Customization drop down, and fill out the required info. The following is some general guidance for ordering custom shoe lasts.
The most challenging part of making custom shoes is crafting or acquiring a pair of custom shoe lasts. This is because shoe lasts are typically mass produced in far away cheap labor markets with language barriers. And crafting shoe lasts by hand requires years of practice. That’s where 3DShoemaker comes into the picture. We can take any of our shoe last styles and digitally customize them to measurements you provide. Then we provide you the 3D models so you can get them 3D printed locally.
Custom Shoe Last Measurements
Our philosophy with custom shoe lasts is that you tell us the exact shoe last measurements you want and that’s what we create. It’s up to you to decide what measurements make sense for a given foot. Typically this is done by measuring foot girths, tracing the foot, analyzing the tracing to get linear measurements, and then adding on allowances to get suitable custom shoe last measurements. If you’d rather we did all this, just choose Bespoke instead of Custom Shoe Lasts. For Bespoke Shoe Lasts we’ll also customize the shape of the toe box.
The two custom shoe last measurements we require are Shoe Last Length and Shoe Last Ball Girth. The rest of the measurements are optional. We do recommend filling in as many as possible though, as this will ensure you get the exact custom shoe last you want. The diagram below depicts the various shoe last measurements we work with. To decide what measurements you want, you’ll need to first determine foot measurements then add on shoe last allowances. You’ll also want to account for toe style, as some styles, like pointed toe, require additional toe allowance. We’re working to specify the percent to add on our various product pages (if you don’t see it, please ask us).
Extra Depth for Insoles in Custom Shoe Lasts
All of our shoe lasts are designed to provide space for 1mm sock linings. If you intend on having anything thicker, such as a custom orthotic, you’ll want to specify this via the “Extra Space for Insoles/Orthotics” drop down. We’ll adjust the height of the shoe last walls accordingly. But please keep in mind that we still use the exact shoe last girth measurements you specify, so you’ll want to adjust them accordingly yourself.
True Custom Shoe Lasts
Some might say that our custom shoe lasts are really more like made-to-measure shoe lasts, and not true custom shoe lasts. We would counter though that any shape can be defined by a set of measurements, given enough of them. When combined with our ever growing collection of shoe last styles, we feel this system can be considered reasonably close to true custom. But if you need even more customization, please contact us as we are quite happy to work with you to develop the exact full custom shoe last you have in mind. And as mentioned earlier, our bespoke shoe lasts are another option.
If you have any thoughts or questions regarding our custom shoe lasts, please comment below or contact us.
