Hand-Welted, Goodyear-Welted and McKay-Welted all offer something different and it's important to know the difference and the nuance behind them.

When quality footwear is discussed, you can't get far into the conversation without turning to welted constructions. The name Goodyear is synonymous with quality. But is there more to it than one businessman’s success story? Unfortunately, the answers are never as straightforward as the marketing team would have you believe.

Goodyear and Hand-Welted are not the same thing although they are often used interchangeably. Similarly, McKay-Welted and Blake-Stitched are not the same thing, and whilst they are related, they are worlds apart from a durability and longevity standpoint.

Today we thought we’d discuss a breakdown that our head bootmaker Jess Wootten recently posted on Youtube: Welted Footwear Construction Methods with Jess Wootten | Goodyear Welt | Hand-Welt | McKay Welt and where our own method — the McKay welted construction — fits among them.

This is a deep dive, but if you’re into boots, leatherwork, or how things are made, it should give you a clear picture of what’s actually going on inside a well‑built boot.

Hand‑welted shoes date back to the 1500s and the method has barely changed in 500 years.

It starts with creating a holdfast on a thick leather insole. The insole is about five and a half millimeters thick. A groove is cut on each side, forming a standing rib called the holdfast. That rib is hand‑punched, and then the upper, the lining, and the welt—a thin strip of leather running around the outside—are sewn on horizontally by hand. This stitch is the mechanical fastening that holds all the upper components together on a handwelted shoe.

Viva la [industrial] revolution.

In the mid‑1800s, during the early industrial revolution, two new processes were developed. The one we use was first created by Lyman Blake and later refined by Gordon McKay.

The welcome arrival of the Blake–Stitch Machine.

Instead of sewing a welt to a holdfast, the machine stitches through all the upper components—the upper, the lining—and into what replaces the welt: a midsole. The stitch line is visible running around the inside of the boot. It’s the same mechanical fastening, but instead of a welt, the midsole becomes the structural element.

After that, another layer of material is added to the outside, and the outsole stitch is sewn around the perimeter using a curved needle—famously on a Rapid E machine. Ours is a Vilh Pedersen, made by the same company but a newer model.

The machine that made all this possible was developed in the 1860s. The first version was patented in 1858, and the improved version arrived in 1864. This machine was the first to mechanically fasten the sole to the shoe without using the hand‑welted method.

Early Blakes were chain stitch machines, meaning one thread created a continuous loop. Later models use a lockstitch, where two threads [a bobbin] ‘lock’ together. This is a stronger and more durable stitch.

The Good Year welt.

The third major method, developed after the McKay process and now the most common in mass production, is the Goodyear welt. Charles Goodyear Jr. from the well‑known Goodyear family, created a system that replaced the hand‑cut holdfast with a canvas rib called gemming. This rib is attached to the insole, forming a taller version of the holdfast. A machine can grip this canvas rib, whereas it cannot grip the fine leather rib of a hand‑welted shoe.

The machine stitches the welt to the upper, the lining, and the canvas rib. The rib is typically glued to the insole. A few manufacturers split the leather and fold it up to form a rib—Viberg has used that method—but it’s uncommon.

The downside of the Goodyear method is that the only thing holding the upper, lining, and welt to the insole is the glue attaching the gemming. Over time, that glue can fail, and the insole can start floating inside the boot once this occurs.

With the McKay method, everything is structurally integral. The McKay (or Blake) stitch can serve as the only connection. This is where “Blake Stitched” construction sits. With Blake (as distinct from Blake Rapid/McKay Welt) there is one layer of outsole with one row of stitching holding all of the layers together. With Blake Rapid/Mckay Welted there is a second layer of material and a second row of stitching. The shoe could function as a complete outsole without the extra layer but the second layer makes it more durable and theoretically more waterproof.

When Mckay Welting we add another layer of material and stitch around the outside, but the internal inseam is fully covered. It’s common for us to see a pair after 5, 10, or 15 years, remove the outsole, and find the inseam looking almost exactly as it did when new. The cork may need replacing, because cork compresses over time, but the structure remains intact.

We also use less cork than a Goodyear shoe. In a Goodyear welt, the holdfast is about eight millimeters tall, creating a deep cavity that gets completely filled with cork. That large mass of granulated cork can break down into particles over time. In our construction, the cavity is smaller, and the cork sits neatly inside what we call a donut—a cutout in the forefoot of the midsole—so it doesn’t shift or cause discomfort.

Another important part of our construction is that we hand‑last all our boots. That doesn’t mean we avoid machines entirely; it means we choose traditional methods where they improve the final product.

Leather Counters & Toe Puffs.

The internal components of the boot make a huge difference to wearability and durability. By using a mellow leather insole, hand lasting with leather counters and toe puffs we can ensure less break in time whilst maintaining structure. The structure of the McKay Welted shoe can come from the insole midsole combination and the steel shank.

When a traditional method is essential, we use it. When a mechanized method from the 1850s can speed things up without reducing quality, we use that instead.

For example, we use a blocking machine to shape the one‑piece upper because it’s faster and doesn’t harm the outcome. But we hand‑last because we want to use traditional internal materials between the upper and the lining. All our boots use leather heel counters and leather toe puffs, wet‑molded into place.

Using a machine laster or back‑part molder usually requires substituting those components with thermoplastic or solvent‑activated polymers. A thermoplastic heel counter is much faster to produce. A leather counter can take days to dry inside the boot, while a thermoplastic counter is heated, shaped, and cooled in seconds. But the melting temperature of thermoplastic is around 100°, and unless your foot reaches that temperature, it won’t mold. Leather, on the other hand, molds with the heat and moisture of your foot. The heel is the least fleshy part of the foot, so anything too rigid there causes blisters.

Leather also softens over time without breaking down. Thermoplastic eventually becomes brittle and breaks into tiny shards of microplastic that float around the heel area. That reduces support and comfort. If you’re making a shoe meant to last a year or two, thermoplastic is fine. But if you want a boot to last 5, 10, 15, or 20 years and be resoleable indefinitely, leather is the better choice.

We have used thermoplastic counters in the past when weight mattered—football boots, cycling shoes, and similar products. In a cycling shoe, weight is critical, and the shoe won’t be used long enough for the counter to degrade. So the material choice depends on the purpose.

Another internal component that’s often substituted in mass production is the insole. We use a 4–5 mm vegetable‑tanned leather insole that’s mellow and flexible. That flexibility reduces break‑in time. We can use a softer insole because we’re not machine‑lasting. A machine laster has a wiper that can deform a soft insole at the toe.

We also get much of our structure from the midsole in the McKay welted construction. Instead of a thin welt, we use a full midsole, which adds rigidity through the midfoot. On top of that, we add another layer of material. The structure under your foot becomes insole, midsole, outsole. Between the insole and midsole, we laminate a steel shank. That makes the midfoot extremely rigid and provides strong arch support. Because we’re not only relying on the shank for torsional strength, the boot has excellent torsional stability through the waist.

The downside is that this construction uses more material, so the boots can be slightly heavier than Goodyear or hand‑welted boots.

You may have noticed the ‘donut’ cutout in the midsole. We remove a section of the forefoot and fill it with cork. Without that cutout, three or four layers of laminated material would make the forefoot extremely rigid. The ‘donut’ creates flexibility and cushioning in the forefoot while keeping the hindfoot rigid.

Hand‑sewn, hand‑welted construction is the traditional method. People often confuse hand‑welted and Goodyear welted shoes because they look similar from the outside, but they are functionally very different. In a hand‑welted shoe, the welt is mechanically fastened to the insole through the holdfast. In a Goodyear welted shoe, the welt is stitched to a canvas rib glued to the insole. That difference matters over time.

The insole material also plays a huge role in durability. It’s the structural foundation of the boot and shouldn’t need replacing during the boot’s lifetime. If it’s substituted with Texon board—a compressed cardboard product—it will eventually crack and delaminate. Texon is designed for insoles, but it still behaves like cardboard under long‑term stress.

The inseam stitching matters.

There’s Blake stitching, and then there’s Blake stitching. We have two machines in the workshop. One is an old chain‑stitch machine from the 1860s or 1870s. The top stitch looks like a chain, forming a looped thread. On one side it looks like a lock stitch; on the other, a chain stitch.

The machine we use in production is more modern and uses a bobbin, creating a true lock stitch. Two threads form a knot inside the hole, so if one thread wears through, the seam doesn’t unravel.

Thread thickness also matters. Traditional Blake machines use an 1.2‑mil twisted waxed polyester thread, or originally waxed linen thread.

We use a 0.8‑millimeter braided polyester thread, which is 50% thicker and inherently stronger. It has more fibers and, combined with a short stitch length, creates a dense, durable inseam. That’s why, even after years of wear, the inseam on our boots often looks almost new when we remove the outsole.

There’s a long‑running debate among shoemakers about what counts as “handmade.”
The debate will probably never end.

Our approach is simple: we use traditional handmade processes where they improve the final product, and we use mechanized processes where they speed up production without harming quality. The goal is always the best possible boot.

There’s a lot happening inside a boot that you never see, but it all adds up to meaningful differences in comfort, durability, and longevity.

There are quality shoes made using all three of these construction techniques. However, a shoe (or boot) is certainly a sum off all of its parts, not to mention all of its processes.

There are a lot of components in a shoe that may never be seen that make an enormous difference to the durability and wearability of a boot. After all, footwear is the one item that we wear, which bears our entire body weight. It is a combination of "soft" and "hard" crafts and needs to be both soft and accommodating, and hard and supportive, as well as flexible and durable. Ultimately for us, we need to find the ways to offer the best outcome most efficiently.

Where we have landed is a marriage of truly handmade traditional processes and post industrialised "modern" processes. That is, time-honoured tacit skills and mechanised processes developed during the industrial revolution. If traditional means 1500AD, then we are "modern". But, if traditional means processes that have been slowly refined over the past 170-odd years, then perhaps, we are traditional. Let's face it, if craft doesn't evolve to some degree, we risk reducing it to curiosity or obscurity.

Our aim is to take the best of both worlds and combine them: hand processes where outcome dictates and machine processes where efficiency doesn't compromise outcome.

That’s a broad overview of what we do in the workshop.