For the direct Youtube link visit here:

See also Episode 1: On A Mission | https://wootten.com.au/ep1onamissionvideo/

See also Episode 2: Provenance Is Everything | https://wootten.com.au/ep2provenanceiseverythingvideo/

See also Episode 4: Good Things Take Time | https://wootten.com.au/ep4goodthingstaketimevideo/

See also Episode 5: Community Is Key

See also Episode 6: It's All About The Craft

THE BIGGER PICTURE:

Today, Krys and I work with our small team to hand make some of the highest quality footwear and leathergoods available in Australia. Our workshop is based in the historic city of Ballarat in a WW2 Munitions factory. But this hasn’t always been the case.

The story starts in 1975. My family opened a craft store in Subiaco. Dad making leathergoods and sandals, my mum, textiles, and my aunt, pottery. In 1978, my folks moved to Adelaide for dad to work under Pietro Salemme one of the chief makers for Gucci at the time.

My dad, Ross Wootten, was a true traditional craftsman, taught by an Italian master and having worked alongside George Koleff in Adelaide. His practice was focused on the craft, not the business of shoemaking. He handmade his footwear in the true sense of the word. Hand-making linen thread and hand sewing with a hogs bristle (not a needle), the traditional way.

In 1984 (one year after I was born), my family moved from Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills, to the mid-north coast of New South Wales, far from any capital city. Mum and Dad quickly set about building the workshop where we lived onsite for three or so years, without access to a flushing toilet, shower, or even walls for many years. Life was pretty primitive. The house that we lived in was literally the workshop, I was immersed in house building and shoe making, life and work were one and the same thing.

After moving to Melbourne I was convinced I needed a “real job”. I set about studying Industrial Design. I worked for nearly two years in the design department at GM Holden; working on show cars and in advanced design, developing new materials and finishes. This small stint in a global corporation gave me the insight I needed to know for certain this type of work wasn’t for me. There was far too much waste and inaction and a huge amount of work done by talented people that would never see the light of day.

So in 2006, I quit my job and enrolled in the last remaining course in Victoria to study shoe making. I had some experience having grown up in dad's workshop and having tinkered with his tools throughout my teenage years, but I had no formal training.

Roughly four months into the course, an opportunity to buy an existing business (Custom Fit Australia) arose. I naively jumped at the chance; I was 23 at the time. Peter Cordwell and his wife Sherrin had been running the small family business for 25-odd years at the time. He and Sherrin stayed with me for five years or so, teaching me all that they knew. We put more of a focus on the bespoke dress shoes and boot side of the business, but for the best part of 7 or 8 years, roughly 75% of what we produced was medical-grade footwear.

In 2010, we moved the business to inner-city Melbourne, in Prahran, and re-branded to Wootten; launching the new website and ranges of bags and accessories over the next couple of years.

In 2017, we were given notice that our Prahran home was to be developed into apartments, so we spent the best part of a year searching for a suitable new home, ending our search in Ballarat. We couldn’t be happier with where we’ve ended up.

Today, we specialise more in boots and utility footwear. We have also built a strong collection of leather accessories, travel bags, utility belts, aprons and more. Further to this, we have been working with other local producers to put together a collection of apparel that compliments our boots. Denim, T-shirts, knitwear, socks etc; we are working to expand this to include collaborations in furniture and other beautiful, locally-made utility products.

Our customers are hard to pigeonhole. Typically, they have been into our store to try things on so the majority of them come from Victoria. However, there are a significant number travelling to see us too. They come from all corners of the country and internationally. We have recently sent boots to Perth, Honolulu, Brisbane, and Cambodia, just to name a few.

Typically, our customers are looking for something of quality and they are looking to support local industry and small family businesses. They are typically conscientious in their purchasing decisions and often are sick of buying poor quality brand name items.

To my knowledge, there isn’t another business in the country of our scale and capability. There are a few that produce small runs or bespoke footwear or that outsource large portions of their production and do certain operations in-house. But there are next to none that do the entire job in-house as we do.

For the direct Youtube link click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si_tohYduUk