Welcome to The Shoe College.
The Shoe College was established in 2003 by a master couture shoe designer/maker to help pass on the lost skills of this wonderful art.
Discovering through her own broad based educational and vocational experience (gotten largely in London, NYC & in The American Southwest) the lack of full ranging footwear design programs available in North America, she began offering classes modelled on training programs used for her own employees. The Shoe College, Universite is a 100% lab environment, therefore providing an excellent opportunity to gain experience that cannot be obtained at any shoe design program currently offered in even the best colleges and universities.
The Shoe College offers learning opportunities in all types of fully fabricated footwear through scheduled classes, special course work, certificate programs, apprenticeships and internships at all skill levels and in all types of quality hand-made footwear both men's and women's.
We do not teach CAD (since courses in CAD are available everywhere) and we do not teach the fabrication of shoes which have injection moulded constructions, since this type of shoe is not a hand-made quality construction.
Classes are conducted entirely in a working shoe lab in Northern Az. The Shoe College teaches, inspires and empowers students with the skills and knowledge to design and make their own prototypes and samples freeing them from the limitations of component based shoe assembly.
Look for new distance learning podcasts and new shoe making kits (shoe college in a box) coming soon!
