The Goodyear welted construction method is a relatively advanced way of building shoes that requires a high level of craftsmanship, produces durable shoes that easily can be resoled several times. Learn all about the Goodyear welted shoe construction in this guide.
What is the Goodyear welted construction?
It's a construction method where the backbone of the shoe is the insole inside the shoe, to this (or to a canvas rib which is glued to the insole, this is called gemming) one attach the upper and a strip of leather called welt, this is done with a Goodyear stitch. The outsole is then sewn with a sole stitch to the welt itself which runs around the shoe, either all the way around or to the back of the heel is most common. This produces a water-resistant shoe that is easy to resoled, since the insole, upper and welt - the actual frame of the shoe - can be kept intact when you cut away the sole seam and replace the outsole.
Description of the Goodyear welted construction method.
A Goodyear welted shoe with a rubber sole, made for our own brand, manufactured entirely in Spain. Please note that the seam visible is not the Goodyear welt seam itself, this is inside the shoe.
The history of Goodyear welted shoes
The Goodyear welt construction is not associated with its inventor, August Destouy, but with Charles Goodyear Jr. (son of the namesake who invented vulcanised rubber), who made it famous. Destouy invented the machine in 1862 and sold the patent to James Hanan, who did not have the resources to disseminate the technology. Hanan took help from Goodyear Jr, a machine expert, who improved the machine and launched it in 1876. It quickly became popular for making welted shoes, especially thanks to industrialization and electrification, which made production faster and cheaper.
Edge stitching department in an early 20th century shoe factory. Image: Wikimedia Commons / Covert
Goodyear welt stitching replaced hand welting in many places, and efficiency increased further when several companies in the shoe manufacturing industry came together under the United Shoe Machinery Cooperation and an entire fleet of machinery for the production of this type of footwear was assembled. Today, only a few manufacturers of Goodyear sewing machines and the like remain in the world, as most have moved to simpler, cheaper construction methods.
How Goodyear welted shoes are made
Making Goodyear welted shoes requires a relatively large number of steps in the manufacturing process. Exactly how many depends on how you count, if you include the smallest step it will be a couple of hundred, if you include each workstation much less. The larger parts are all made by machine, some steps during production are done by hand, as a rule, the more expensive the shoes are, the more handmade and advanced steps are included.
First, the upper parts of the shoes are cut out and sewn together using special sewing machines. On welted shoes, there is usually both an outer leather and a lining leather, with reinforcement in between, which contributes to durability while maintaining breathability.
The next step is to attach the sole to the bottom of a last, the actual shape of the shoe, and with machines the upper is pulled over the last and pinned to the sole, waiting for the permanent seam. Then the upper, the insole and the welt (a strip of leather that runs around the shoe) are sewn together with the Goodyear seam itself, using a Goodyear sewing machine. A shank is attached to the arch for stability, usually made of metal, and a cork compound is used to fill the gap between the insole and outsole.
Here, the welt is sewn to the upper leather and the insole with a Goodyear sewing machine at Yanko's factory in Inca, Mallorca.
The outsole is then pressed into place and sewn on with a sole stitch, using a Rapid sewing machine. If a closed sole channel is made in a leather sole, the flap is laid down and glued so that the seam is not visible underneath. A usually pre-built heel is attached, the edges are trimmed and finished, and the shoes are given their final finish and polishing. Throughout the manufacturing process, not only are seams and nails used, but in many places glue and adhesive, as they are on all shoes, also stitched constructions. The last is pulled out of the shoe and a sock lining sock, which usually covers the back half of the shoe's sole inside (this to keep breathability high).
Edges are sanded in the TLB Mallorca factory. Here is a shoe with a closed sole channel, where the bottom seam is hidden inside the leather sole.
Welted shoes can also be made entirely by hand, where all steps in addition to sewing the upper - i.e. lasting, welting, sole stitching, heel building etc - are done by hand with awl, needle, thread, hammer and other handheld tools. Our Midas Bootmaker boots are made by hand. Our Skolyx, Yanko and TLB Mallorca shoes are all Goodyear welted, unless other construction methods are specified, such as for our sneakers or Belgian loafers.
How can you tell if a pair of shoes are Goodyear welted?
A common misconception is that the seam that runs on the outside on top of the sole edge is the welt stitching, but it is actually the sole stitching, also known as the Rapid seam. It's also common for manufacturers to make shoes with sole seams that are purely decorative, to make them look like welted shoes.
It takes some knowledge to fully ascertain whether a pair of shoes are Goodyear welted or not, but what to look for is the following:
- If you look inside the shoe, there is no seam in the sole. If the sole is covered with a full sock lining, you can feel for a seam at the edges of the front of the shoe. If there is a seam, the shoe is usually Blake stitched (where a seam goes straight through the insole, upper and outsole) or made with Blake/Rapid construction (where the insole, upper and midsole are attached with a Blake stitch, then the midsole and outsole with a Rapid sole stitch on the outside as on a Goodyear welted shoe).
- On the outside, a seam should run along the top of the sole edge around at least the front of the shoe. If the shoes have an open channel underneath, you can see that the seam on top of the shoe and the one underneath have the same stitch density. If they are different on the top and bottom, there is usually only a decorative stitch on the top, while the stitch you can see underneath is the Blake stitch that goes all the way into the shoe. If no seam is visible underneath, the shoes may either just be cemented, or if they have a leather sole, the seam may have been hidden in a channel and covered over. Then it can be tricky to determine completely, but if it's just a decorative seam, the stitches on the top are usually very even and at exactly the same distance from the edge all the way, while if it is a real sole stitch, it's a bit more uneven.
Here you can see the sole stitch on top of the welt on a welted shoe.
For more information on different parts of shoes, construction and manufacturing, check out our shoe lexicon.
We stock Goodyear welted shoes from Skolyx, Yanko and TLB Mallorca, all made entirely in Spain. We also have hand welted boots from Midas Bootmaker, made in Indonesia.
You can find our full range of welted footwear here.