Ep. 21 - Emil Rahmana Putra, Winson / Midas, about the Indonesian boot and shoemaking scene

In this episode we put the spotlight on the thriving boot and shoemaking scene in Indonesia, we do this together with Emil Rahmana Putra. He is the founder of the two brands Winson and Midas Bootmaker, where the first now is making the finest fully handmade dress shoes in the country, a true premium product of absolute top quality, while Midas focus on more affordable still excellent handmade Ready to Wear and Made to Order workwear boots. The company I work for, Skolyx, has been collaborating with Emil on a range of Ready to Wear Midas boots, and in recent years there are many around the world who have discovered the huge scene of especially workwear boot brands that comes out of Indonesia. The tradition of making boots by hand goes back to when the country was a Dutch colony, and today traditional shoe and bootmaking as well as other types of leather craftsmanship are relatively large industries for Indonesia. As you will hear, Emil Rahmana Putra is one of these obsessive souls that we have in the shoemaking world, we talked about how he ended up in the shoe industry and managed to build two successful brands, about how he to a large extent actually is a self-trained shoemaker, about his view on the success and challenges for the Indonesian boot and shoemaking scene, and much more.