Men's Colonial

Fugawee makes both straight last and left/right or "crooked" colonial shoes. The straight last is more correct for the ordinary persona of the Colonial period but the crooked last is more comfortable, A straight lasted shoe molds itself to left or right foot in a few wearings anyway.

What about straight lasted shoes? Medieval shoes were soft and flat. They were something like moccasins. Left and right shoes were not a problem. Then came high heels.

High-heeled shoes are mentioned as early as 1533 but they reached ordinary fops in the 1590's when they swept into Venice and Florence. This brought out a whole new set of problems. The shank in the arch of the shoe had to be strong enough to keep the shoe from collapsing forward and the sides of the shoe had to be moulded so that the foot would not slide down into the toe area. The complexities and cost of carving compound curves into the last (the form that the shoe is molded over) and then making a mirror image for the other foot limited such shoes to the very rich.

You guessed it. Style won out, so from the 1590's until the 1830's ordinary people wore straight last shoes. Then, in 1828 a foreman at the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts developed a duplicating lathe for the manufacture of gun stocks. It was the time of Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts for firearms. ( The lathe is on exhibit in the Springfield Armory museum, closed Monday and Tuesday)

A Philadelphia shoemaker thought that Blanchard's new lathe was also ideal for making shoe lasts and soon discovered that, by reversing the cam which guided the cutter, a mirror image could be produced. Since a wooden last gets chewed up by tack holes in fifty or a hundred uses, there was a constant demand for new lasts and the new lasts soon were all left and right. By 1841 the military was using left/right shoes.

Some slippers and light women's shoes continued to be made on straight lasts by the turn-shoe method until perhaps 1870. This probably is because the lasts were used longer since they did not suffer all the tack holes used in welt construction.

(By the way; Napoleon's valet broke in his boss's boots. It's good to be the Emperor.)

The left/right Franklin is made of black calfskin.

It has a normal heel and is leather lined. The toe is slightly squared but not square enough to limit the style to pre-1735. With a longish tongue, the Franklin is a good choice for the gentleman of means. To get a little snobbish, paint your heels red with vinyl paint. The latchets will accept a 1¼ to 1½ inch buckle. Sizes 7 to 13 in E width only. Franklin sells for $95 plus $5 shipping.

The left/right Concord is unlined and made of a heavier leather than the Franklin. We wanted more of a common man's shoe. Then we named it the Concord in honor of the heroes who left their homes and their wife-warm beds to gather at the Concord bridge and send the chastened army of the British Empire scampering down the road.

The toe of the Concord is a little more round than the Franklin's, bringing the style closer to the shoes found at Ft. Ligonier. We took the pattern for the Franklin uppers and formed them over a last taken from an 1860's military shoe. The Concord is available in rough or smooth finish for $89 plus $5 shipping. Buckles are not included

Square Toes For a period in the 1720s and early 1730s Boxy square toes were in fashion. Then, about 1735, toes became pointed, heels became higher and the mark of an old fart were two bits of fashion. He wore his stockings pulled up over his breeches at the knees and he was "square" or "an old square" in that he clung to the square toes of an earlier fashion. Today someone who is out of touch might be called "square". Just like 1735. The saying surely has hung on. ( There are a number of uses of "old square toes" in stage plays and novels of the 1700s).

Sizes from 7E to13½ EE. We carry E, EE and EEE widths in whole sizes, E and EE in half sizes. Available in rough out or smooth finish. Short tongue, round toe, (square toes disappeared in 1735) 1¼ inch latchets. Price $89 plus $5 shipping.

In 1757-58 a British army was on its way to attack the French stronghold of Fort Duquesne; later known as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Delayed by the weather, they established winter quarters at Fort Ligonier. A neighboring creek was used as a refuse dump and a flash flood in January or February, 1758 deposited a load of clay that sealed the contents of the dump for two hundred years. In 1958 the dump was opened and, among other things, a great number of shoes and shoe parts were discovered. Units of that British army had recently been stationed in Bermuda, Ireland, Britain, Philadelphia and Charleston. Their shoes had been made in all of those places, reflecting the supply system of the British Army at the time. The discarded shoes showed fourteen toe styles, an equal number of tongue styles and latchets (straps) from 3/4 inch to 3 inches in width. There were no boxy square toes. The closest thing was a few examples of a cut-off point something like a "snoot boot."

From the original list, we selected the most common or predominant features. The result was a round-toed shoe with a low or moderate heel, short tongue and latchets of 1¼ inches. That is the shoe we made. It will serve for a military or everyday shoe from 1740 to 1800.

Swapping shoes from foot to foot each day. In over a hundred examples, the Ligonier collection showed one or two with evidence of having been swapped from foot to foot. Although there is evidence that some officers put out such orders, the practice was seldom followed. Can you imagine getting into camp with wet shoes, drying them near the fire, but not too near, so that they are stiff and cold in the morning; and then forcing your feet into the clammy leather that had been molded to the other foot? No way. This would also be a fine way to tear up the latchets by re-setting the buckles each day.

Rough out or smooth? Fugawee uses the same top grain leather for both types and doesn't use cheaper splits for the rough-out. The rough-out reflects the common shoe in Colonial times. The leather splitting machine was not invented until the 1840's.

In Colonial days, leather was brought to thickness by "currying" or scraping over a wooden beam. Unlined shoes would be made with the smooth side inside to take the place of a lining. The rough outside leather was dressed with a mixture of soot, lard, bear grease and beeswax. The first commercial shoe polish was advertised in Boston in 1771.

For the most authentic appearance, the rough-out Concord or 1758 model may be "packed" with commercial shoe polish to simulate the bear grease polish of the itinerant shoemaker.

Return Policy We will do our best to give you the proper fit. Exchanged shoes must be in sellable condition. Just imagine how you would react if you received shoes with holes in the latchets, or wear on the soles. If you send a pair back for another size, we will pay the return reight back to you on the second pair.