Ep. 37 - Q&A Special with Seiji McCarthy

About this episode

In this Q&A special, Seiji McCarthy answers questions about American bespoke shoemaking and his successful shoe brand in Tokyo.

This around it's time for another Q&A Special, and the one who gets to answer all the questions is the American / Japanese shoemaker Seiji McCarthy. He's based in Tokyo since many years where he runs his very successful shoe brand that primarily makes classic American styled bespoke, MTM and MTO shoes. You can hear more about his journey in episode 25 of the podcast. Some of the questions he'll answer are on why there’s not more American bespoke shoemakers making classic American style shoes, how his workshop is set up, if lastmaking skill is affected by more makers offering handmade MTO shoes, and much more.

People in this episode

Guest: Seiji McCarthy

Topics covered

• Q&A
• shoemaking
• bespoke shoes
• American style shoes

Keywords

• classic American style
• MTM
• MTO
• lastmaking skill

Mentioned in this episode

Products: MTM, MTO, bespoke shoes, MTM shoes, MTO shoes

Books & works: Q&A Special

Places: Tokyo

More episodes of Shoegazing Podcast

• Ep. 36 - Daniel Bucheli, Majordome, about finding a unique design language · December 22, 2025 · 49 min
• Ep. 35 - Sebastian Tarek, about shoemaking education · October 30, 2025 · 1h 4m
• Ep. 34 - Rob James, Euroleathers, about leather wholesaling · April 21, 2025 · 52 min
• Ep. 33 - Takashi Horiguchi, Super 8 Shoes, about vintage men's shoes · January 26, 2025 · 33 min
• Ep. 32 - Q&A Special nr. 3 with Daniel Wegan, Catella Shoemaker · October 20, 2024 · 54 min
• Ep. 31 - Jim McCormack, about life as a freelance bespoke shoemaker · May 26, 2024 · 1h 15m