by Andrew Morrison | Josh Blodans and Jules Vagelatos of Vancouver’s wee shoemaking firm, Love Jules Leather, make excellent shoes by hand (I love their boat shoes!), but they have always been in a bit of a pickle with their soles. Since their supply chain is a cruel game of manufacturer’s “minimum orders”, the little guy – in this case a company making just a single pair of shoes a day – is pretty well screwed unless they’re supplying their own soles.

So that’s just what Josh and Jules have just decided to do. Making their own soles not only will afford them a great deal of independence, but it will also allow them to finally make a woman’s fit and men’s sizes above 13 (prior to this, they could only get men’s sizes 6 – 13). They’re doing it with a little help from their friends…and Kickstarter. They launched a fundraising campaign on September 9th (watch the video above) for $10,000 to get the ball rolling and – amazingly – they reached that goal in less than a day . They have now accrued three times that amount – at the time of writing, a whopping $33,162. They were even named Project Of The Day on Kickstarter! How’s that for awesome?

I paid them a congratulatory visit at their tiny Chinatown workshop the other day and they were over the moon. They’re really awesome people who craft beautiful, fully-customizable shoes, one pair at a time, and totally loving what they do. That’s a rare ass thing and wonderful to boot. You can learn all about the project and what they plan to do with the extra money here. And yes,  you can still contribute and get yourself loaded up with some of the goodies seen above.

EVERYTHING SEEN IN VANCOUVER