Introducing Farmsneaker

One of the bi products of beef is a hide - the hair covered skin of a cow. These traditionally are turned into leather, but due to a lack of tanneries left in the UK and current geopolitics, their value has plummeted and recently some have even been landfilled, which is such a waste of what can be an amazing material. During covid I got involved with a project to collect our hides from the abattoir and with others get a supply chain going for traceable Pasture for Life leather (here's a blog post with more details) . Now I am finally getting to turn that traceable leather from our farm into products, which is probably the most exciting and long awaited part of the whole journey.

So on 12th September the trial Farmsneaker event was held at Park Farm. With 8 keen attendees I ran a day long workshop where people made a pair of sneakers / trainer from our leather, from our cows. The attendees had previously filled out a form giving their shoe size and chosen options for the leather colour, laces, sole colour and eyelet metal finish, so that on the day all the bits were ready and every pair made was different and personal to the owner.

The morning started with a talk about the farm, leather and why this material was different, then we got down to marking out the uppers and fronts of the sneakers, and carefully cutting these out.

New website www.farmsneaker.com

We then added the eyelets, punched out the stitching holes, and then came sewing it all together onto the sole. The recycled rubber soles are designed specifically for hand sewing, and whilst straight forward do take a bit of getting right. Also once you've done one shoe you have to do it all again!

There was alot of focused concentration and with a burst of activity everyone finished both shoes. By 5pm everybody was laced up and strutting around the shed trying out their new sneakers.

We will be running more of these workshops over the next few months, either on the farm or close by. If you are interested in getting more details on dates and costs email andrewrumming@me.com

We now have a website www.farmsneaker.com