I’ll bet you have never visited a slipper factory… on my side, I know very well the manufacturing process of luxury shoes. But those of slippers, not completely yet! Kathy and I are both passionate people, so we went and visited one of the factories we work with. And it was with big joie and pride, that the boss explained everything to us.

I thought I knew about everything there is to know on shoed, well I had a couple of surprises!!

Let me tell you how the visit went:

After the designer draws and creates her or his model, the slipper, like any other shoe or clothing, goes to the pattern making department.

The modeller will have to translate the drawing of the designer.

In order to do so, he will use a wooden shoe shape and draw the model onto it. This drawing will be flattened in order to create the pattern.

The most difficult thing within this stage is to understand correctly and translate correctly the idea and the drawing of the designer, while respecting the different proportions.

Once this is done, a prototype is produced to ensure details, proportions, accessories and that the stitching is positioned correctly.

The sole is very often made of buffalo, as this is a very adaptable and resistant material , noiseless on different sorts of floors and does not slip or be too sticky at the same time.

One can find slippers with soles made of leather or rubber mais they are also destined to be used outside.

Tee different parts of the slipper are glued together and then stitched. Once the assembly is terminated, the slipper goes into an oven to make sure the glue sticks to the surface (I had no idea - in an over, can you imagine!?!

Once they come out of the oven, they just need to rest, dry in open air and they are ready to be put on your feet.


Fascinating, isn’t it?