The Shoe Maker

There were two defining moments in the young life of Hong Kong-based shoemaker Masaru Okuyama. The first occurred when he was a boy, attending a festival in Japan to celebrate young children growing up healthy. ‘I was just three years old and it was the first time I ever wore proper, leather-soled shoes,’ he says. ‘In the photos taken that day, you can see by the look on my face how proud I was of those shoes.’ The second? Seeing a car commercial on TV. A wind tunnel blew coloured smoke across a vehicle’s profile, demonstrating its aerodynamics. ‘This was amazing for me. Now, when I draw the curves of a shoe, I imagine that smoke moving around the edges of the design.’ A graduate of the Nihon University College of Art, and a protégé of Japanese shoemaker Chihiro Yamaguchi, Okuyama works from his garage atelier. He measures clients’ feet meticulously, fashions a wooden last by hand and cuts several pairs of trial shoes, fettling and finessing until the fit is just so. This can take up to six months. ‘No two people’s feet are exactly alike,’ he says. ‘Even our own two feet are not identical in length and width. When shoes are made to the exact measurements of each individual foot, there is no need to compromise on the comfort of one foot over the other. After all, your foot is as unique as your fingerprints.’