Shoemaker specializing in shoe uppers: shoe stretching machine

The sound of taking high heeled shoes off and putting them on the shoe stretching machine. The recording was realized in Adam Cieślak’s Shoe Uppers Repair Shop at 3 Dąbrowskiego Street in Warsaw (Poland).
The shoes are put on metal lasts (3D model of a foot) used for stretching the width, length or a chosen fragment (in the case of people suffering from bunions) of a shoe.
Services provided in the shoe uppers repair shop include the narrowing, widening and shortening of boots, stretching of shoes, replacement of zippers in shoes, sewing straps on too loose shoes, replacing buckles and elastic bands in shoes, sewing in shoe counters and replacing shoe padding. The shoemaker specializing in shoe uppers prepares also the uppers for shoes made to measure but nowadays, he much more frequently performs shoe repair works.

Sound recordist: Monika Widzicka
Photographer: Iwo Wachowicz