Welting points
Footwear brand Paraboot’s ongoing use of Goodyear-welting and Norwegian welting in its shoes and boots is part of its raison d’être.
In a recent behind-the-scenes film that industry body the Fédération Française de la Chaussure (FFC) made about Paraboot production, the brand’s marketing and communications director, Pierre Colin, says it is essential for designers and pattern-makers to have from the outset “a mastery of the materials”. This includes the leather Paraboot uses, which is mostly high-quality calf leather. Calf appeals, Mr Colin explains, for its softness and because the animals have had relatively little time in which to become “scarred by the pangs of life”, although the hides are still of good size and thick enough to provide the strength that Paraboot requires.
It uses automated cutting technology from Teseo to cut pieces for its uppers from each hide, using the familiar technique of first marking any flaws on the hide and allowing the technology to carry out nesting and cutting. “We need to make sure we get the maximum number of pieces from each hide,” Mr Colin says, “the maximum yield we can possibly have.”Rubber lovers
Since the 1920s, rubber has also been a key material for the soles of the brand’s footwear. Shoe companies began making products with light cotton canvas uppers and rubber soles in the nineteenth century, but Paraboot claims to have pioneered the combination of rubber soles and leather uppers soon after World War I. Other materials that Paraboot uses in some of its styles include raffia and canvas. “Understanding how all of these elements work, understanding the mechanics of it all is what’s necessary to be able to make a shoe in the end,” Mr Colin says.
He explains that Rémi Richard’s idea of adapting rubber, which was, then, a relatively new material for European footwear producers to use, has proved successful because it has lasted for 100 years and is now much imitated. In the founder’s time, shoes and boots with leather uppers had soles made from either leather or wood.
The company’s headquarters are in Saint-Jean-de-Moirans, close to Grenoble and the Alps, and, even a century ago, there was demand for footwear suitable for walking, working and climbing in the mountains. To endow their footwear with non-slip capability, cobblers famously used hobnails, but this changed with Paraboot’s inventiveness. Mr Richard realised rubber’s potential for bringing this type of footwear into the twentieth century and, in the third decade of the twenty-first century, his legacy endures. “Our rubber soles are still a key part of the brand’s identity,” Pierre Colin says.
Public image
Goodyear-welting remains another mainstay of the brand’s collections; Mr Colin makes the point that artisans in the Paraboot factory have to master 150 different manual operations to be able to produce its Goodyear-welted shoes. Goodyear-welting goes on at the factory alongside a less common method known as Norwegian welting. This involves double-stitching, with the upper being stitched to the sole vertically through the welts, with a horizontal line of stitching coming afterwards to strengthen the welts’ attachment to the sole. Mr Colin describes Norwegian welting as being emblematic of Paraboot’s public image. “The whole world knows Norwegian welting is an important part of what Paraboot is famous for,” he maintains. He describes the technique as being a way of “imprisoning the sole”, making it an integral part of the shoe.
Paraboot began its long tradition of using Norwegian welting in its ranges of mountain and equestrian footwear, but the company states that for some time that the technique has been in use more and more in everyday styles. Late last year Lyon-based fashion brand Arpenteur incorporated footwear from Paraboot into one of its collections. Arpenteur’s founders, Marc Asseily and Laurent Bourven, have described the footwear brand’s products as combining the “utilitarian quality” of the outdoors, of workwear and sportswear with the sophistication of traditional designs. They have pledged to support local manufacturing and, therefore, all the products in the collection are entirely made in France.
Mystery name
Cambriole shoes and Elevage boots are the products Arpenteur opted to include in its offering. The Cambriole is a shoe based on an earlier Paraboot model, the Chambord, with the redesign taking place specifically for Arpenteur. For its part, the Elevage is an elasticated boot, again specifically designed for Arpenteur, a traditional boot worn by cattle herdsmen in the Camargue in southern France as the inspiration. Both of these footwear products have uppers made from oiled nubuck, with goatskin linings and rubber soles. For both styles, Paraboot has used the Norwegian welting method to attach the sole to the upper.
Part of the reason Paraboot is such an enthusiastic user of Norwegian welting is that it makes shoes water-resistant and easy to re-sole. It acknowledges, however, that the technique’s name remains something of a mystery. It seems not to have any direct connection to Norway; in fact, it appears it is much more the preserve of this corner of south-west France.
Based in Saint-Jean-de-Moirans, near the Alps, Paraboot’s first customers wanted footwear to wear for walking, working and climbing in the mountains.
All Credits: Paraboot
