munson lasts and goodyear welt anatomical footwear
links for you
I have some links and recommendations for shoes which are anatomical but may make compromises on the other barefoot qualities. This is a list for people like me who want to look good but don’t want to be deformed.
Goodyear welt & hand-sewn footwear
The r/goodyearwelt subreddit and its affiliates, like websites like Heddels and Stitchdown, are not typically anatomically minded. However, there is a history of anatomical footwear within this production sphere.
Goodyear welting refers to the machine process of a traditional hand welt, which is the manufacturing technique of binding the top of the shoe to the sole with a stitched rib. This makes it easy to resole the shoe multiple times. Footwear produced with this technique is expensive to manufacture. r/goodyearwelt also discusses “high-quality footwear” more generally, meaning hand-constructed footwear using traditional methods. Most brands of this type offer custom orders.
These are expensive shoes. However, these are also shoes you will own for decades, with care. This is how shoes used to be, before everything was manufactured to be junk, valued on the basis of its marketing success, like Vivos.
Goodyear welt boots tend to be stiff, and heavily built. People describe them as wearing bricks on your feet, at least initially. They are a particular taste and offer a particular function. They look good, because they are classic, but most of these companies follow a specific style guide. Most of these boot styles were developed from boots made for a specific trade. For example, engineer boots were “developed in the 1930s for firemen working on steam locomotives.”
These shoes are all expensive if bought new. However, it is possible to buy them on the secondhand market.
Most welted and hand-constructed boots will mold to the foot over time, depending on the give of the leather. However, your foot will also mold to the boot if the last is not anatomical.
Lasts are the wooden or plastic shape on which the shoe is built. In 1912, Dr. Munson introduced the Munson last, an anatomical last, for use in boot production for the United States Army. “He posited that foot pain, left unchecked, ‘soon reduces buoyancy of spirit, causes mental irritability and materially diminishes fighting capacity.’”
This is part of the larger history of masculinity and white supremacy in the United States. Munson argued that weak and flat feet among soldiers was an indicator for a degenerating, “over-civilized” male population turning feminized. Beth Linker writes: “The new white man of the 1910s promised to replace the Victorian man of self-restraint and gentility with a stronger and more physically virile ideal of manliness. The newer, stronger, ‘civilised’ man of the twentieth century would achieve the pinnacle of masculinity by combining the strength of the ‘racially primitive man’ with the intelligence and self-control of the civilised white man.”
I’m not going to get into it. This is just to point out that the history of the foot holds interest and cultural relevance beyond consumer analysis, and that these discursive patterns hold weight in the marketing techniques of barefoot companies today.
Anyway, the Munson last is the term you want to look for when shopping for welted and hand-stitched footwear. Companies which do use the Munson last often use modified versions of the original last, which have their own names. “Not all Munson lasts are executed in the same way.” Additionally, nearly all of these Munson lasts have a slight taper on the medial side.
Nick’s Boots has the Thurman last, their version of the Munson last. Search “Thurman” in r/goodyearwelt to find more top-down images and reviews of boots built on this last. I love the Wellington 365.
Jim Green, very much less attractive, but more affordable than others, uses wide anatomical lasts on some models, their JG last and STC last. The JG is the wider and the base of their barefoot line. I hate the look of their barefoot boots. I do like the black tyre wedge Numzaan boot on the STC last. Check in the details on each model for the last type.
Russell Moccasin isn’t welted, but constructed with traditional methods and just as quality. On some Ready-to-Wear models, they use a modified Munson last, their 40 last. Their product images don’t include top-down views, so check Reddit. People describe them as being much less heavy than other kinds of traditional boots, more like sneakers. They offer minimal Vibram soles on some RTW models, like in the PH line, and a fully flat thin sole on custom orders. These are the most expensive in this post, about $700-800 new, but they have a strong resale market.
Searching “Munson” in r/goodyearwelt provides other options. Searching “Munson” on Standard & Strange also brings up options, like the gorgeous $900 Rolling Dub Trio Roots boot, because they list last types in the item descriptions. This post and comment section also shows more Munson last options and foot-shaped options, but includes a lot of dead links, because it’s old. Try searching “anatomical” and “foot-shaped” in r/boots and r/goodyearwelt.
Also, something non-leather: the brand Wakouwa has a line called Anatomica. They make this cotton canvas deck shoe.