“Where do you get your shoes from?”
…is a question asked all the time by beginners and more advanced reenactors who urgently need a new pair. You may of course be lucky and have a Karl in your group, as we have, who is open for our wishes. But not everybody is that lucky.
So to resolve this question with an easy link, I want to offer a (regularly updated) list of links for places to go to for your medieval shoes.
Before we start, some disclaimers:
1. I do not recommend buying medieval shoes without at least having seen some of the relevant originals from your time.
Literature on the topic (Some international ones as well): https://neuesausdergotik.blogspot.com/2015/04/quellen-des-14jahrhunderts-literatur.html
Originals in museums: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1M-CQxxbfVfh7GtlSsNhZa5MTteiI2Dbb&fbclid=IwAR0miCiKyzr1LAjvOmojDv5wva9MoJxIumfFRF6OTKHf4uRDbtgdhv77dRA&ll=52.55560708084537%2C10.988299663283108&z=4
2. There is really a lot of crap out there calling itself “medieval shoes”
But not every leather shoe is a medieval shoe. It needs to have a certain form and you want to go for turnshoes. What are turnshoes? Here is some information for german speaking folks and people able to use Browser translators, but you should easily find other websites out there explaining how medieval shoes work http://www.foracheim.de/cms.php?cmspid=150
3. Ask your supplier, which leather they use
You want vegetable tanned here. Some suppliers are also okay with you sending them leather to work with. Theres a couple of leather suppliers out there that will sell you leather that is perfectly fine for medieval shoes, ask your living history colleagues how to source it.
4. Something valid for all suppliers: You get what you pay for.
A pair of shoes for 90 EUR will be less beautiful, less accurate and less durable than a pair for 350 EUR. Good shoes will also last you longer. My own pair of shoes from Graziano dal Barco was repaired for the first time last year after 11 years of use. Back then I paied 200 EUR for it.
5. This is what you are here for:
So, here we go, these suppliers I found to offer products that are ready for living history use in different sortiments and qualities.
http://www.historicalitalianshoes.com/
https://www.facebook.com/resrarae/
https://www.facebook.com/shoesfromfra (from Ukraine, please be mindfull of the circumstance when requesting)
https://www.np-historicalshoes.com/
Shoe repairs: http://www.foracheim.de/cms.php?cmspid=32
Early medieval shoes and shoes for antiquity reenactment:
https://presta.knieriem.net/de/
https://reenactment-bedarf.de/
And these here are what I would call “beginner shoes”, both offer “Wendeschuhe” (“turn shoes”), sewn with the machine or on request by hand at low prices for everybody still unclear on where the hobby is going to go or with a small budget.
https://cp-abenteuer.de/schuhe/original-wendeschuhe/
https://vehi-mercatus.de/Mittelalter-Schuhe_1
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