the man who loves shoes
December 8, 2008 · Print This Article
You know the stereotype about women and shoes? About how they have too many? And want and need more? That they go on needless, compulsive shoe-buying sprees?
Well I’m here to flip that stereotype. I’m a man who is crazy about shoes; women’s and men’s. I design shoes. I make shoes. I collect shoes. I collect books about shoes. I teach shoe-making. I go on shoe-buying benders.
I have more shoes than my wife. Many more. 100 pairs. That’s a lot for a guy. Not just sneakers either. Prada, Y-3, Costume National, Cole Haan. The day-to-day ones are in my closet. The really special ones are boxed in the attic. There are others in storage. I buy shoes that are never meant to be worn. I just want them because they are a beautiful design.
But this isn’t just a story about obsessive, compulsive shoe collecting. My name is Anthony Cady. I’m a shoe designer and professor of footwear design at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
My day job is teaching at FIT, where we train many American shoe designers of the future. Former students are designing for various companies including Nina, Jessica Simpson, Cole Haan, Nine West, Kenneth Cole, Coach, Catherine Malandrino, and many more.
Students make shoes literally from the sole up. We work with lasts, various components , leather, cement and various machinery and we spend several semesters making different styles of shoe. I enjoy making shoes and teaching the process. We study the history of the shoe – Gladiator sandals, Venetian chopines, Medieval poulaines, Louis XIV pumps. And the designers; Vivier, the Levines, Ferragamo, Perugia. Shoes have a long and rich history.
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