A laser focus on repairing and rebuilding high-end shoes and boots has made Grant and Isaac Gustafsen’s Nashville, Tennessee-based Unsung House an important cobbler-scene player in a relatively short period of time. Their YouTube channel is a delight to scroll through and watch all kinds of different teardowns and restorations of everything from new-ish Vibergs to vintage tanker boots, and Ben and Ticho had a terrific talk with Grant on this week’s Shoecast.
Turns out that timing was pretty close to perfect: today, Unsung has opened their books for orders on two legitimately unique house-made models, all of which are customizable in a serious range of ways.
The Gustafson boys have already made some pairs for themselves—Isaac is wearing some Engineers in the Stitchdown Patina Thunderdome, while Grant is rocking the Pershing Boot-inspired Slog Boot—as well as some friends and lucky customers. Now, customers can order a pair of either the U 22-2 Engineer (starting at $1500), or the U 22-1 Slog Boot (starting at $1400).
Unsung’s boots are built with the same quality of materials and attention to detail that they provide to all of their repairs and rebuilds, right down to the brass buckles on the Engineer (crafted by Grant himself). Each boot is handwelted with J&FJ Baker leather insoles on your choice of last—either the classic anatomical Munson, the well-rounded PBD, or the sprung-toe Ludi. (Grant told me they’d be open to the idea of using custom lasts as well.)
Munson last
PBD last
Ludi last
From left to right: Munson, PBD, Ludi
Beyond choosing pattern and last, you can also customize things like welt type, sole configuration (Vibram, JR, and Dr. Sole are available), thread color, and of course upper leather. Unsung currently has Horween Olive Chromexcel and English Tan Dublin on hand, as well as Wickett & Craig Latigo, and they can help with sourcing other leathers as well. They’ve also got some more of their amazing walnut dye available, too, if you want that wicked bronzed look found on pairs like the ones below.
To order your own custom Unsung boot, reach out and talk to Grant and Isaac directly—they can be contacted via email at shoes@unsung.house; on Instagram; or, if you’re in the Stitchdown Premium Discord, hit up Grant at @Unsung.
Unsung will be limiting this initial batch of orders to around 30 customers, and they’ll announce when the books are open for subsequent orders. We imagine this first batch of orders will fill up pretty quickly.