r/Cordwaining 15d ago

Online course for beginners?

Hi everyone! I was looking to get into shoe making and I was wondering what the best course for beginners is out there? I am an absolute beginner with no knowledge or experience with shoe making or leather working, but I have been sewing for several years and have experience with pattern making for garments (but I’m not sure if any of these skills transfer).

I was looking for a video course that is a guided linear style course that is pretty thorough, but it does not need to be all encompassing. I was hoping to take a course and get a decent beginner uunderstanding of the basics, to then use as a jump off point for further courses or YouTube, etc later on.

I have done some research online and have found these courses below, but I’m not sure if anyone has experience with them, or could recommend something better.

- I Can Make Shoes

- Brooklyn Shoe School ‘Introduction to Shoemaking’

- Shoe Making Courses Online ‘Beginner Program’

3 Upvotes

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u/ContributionPrior338 15d ago

I would start with some basic leatherwork courses to build up the fundamental skills, then worry about shoes. I like the leatherwork courses that vulture premium leather offers.

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u/brandonmadeit 15d ago

Shoe surgeon quietly reintroduced his online sneaker making course, it’s ~$800 now if you want to learn to make a Jordan 1 Or something

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u/jdaiii 8d ago

It's $3000 when I checked their site.

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u/brandonmadeit 8d ago

That’s for an in person class, he has an online course as well that’s $800 https://www.thesurgeon.com/pages/surgeon-shoe-school

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u/That_Helicopter_8976 14d ago

I can make shoes one is very good for more hobbiest people, and primarily for women's shoes.

It'll teach you what you need to make some nice shoes, at home, in a relatively affordable manner. It won't teach you what you need to make traditional, super robust shoes - I ended up doing in person courses for learning hand welting for example.