Handcrafted Products 101 - as part of the Women's Style series by GeoBeats. I think you can tell the difference between a handcrafted product and a mass produced one for sure. Number one: the smell. You can smell the glue and the synthetic linings that most footwear have these days in them, versus smelling like real leather or really soft beautiful leathers. Handcrafted also, they are not perfect, there is a little bit of an edge to them and I always feel like my shoes have soul. It takes thirty-six pair of hands to hand make a pair of shoes. There are hammers, there are nails, there are all sorts of things that the shoes gets worked to create a beautiful product and you can see and feel the difference from a mass produced shoe and a handcrafted one. I have been in the business for so long and I have seen the industry go from, in the eighties, handcrafted footwear to now designer product that is mass produced. For me, I want to bring it back. I want to be able to provide quality for the price and I also am hand-making it here in America and it is important. I do not have the capabilities to mass produce my shoes, nor would I ever, and I have the luxury to have created my own factory and to hand make everything with the best quality and comfort and craftsmanship. As a designer, it is the biggest luxury that I have and that is that I am able to not only dream up or come up with an idea but actually have it made within twenty-four hours and not have it be lost in translation of what somebody else interprets overseas of what my creation is. So I am extremely hands on and you will see it with my designs and my product.
