Former Dayton and Love Jules bootmaker Tess Gobeil is the co-founder of Awl Together Leather, a custom leatherwork and shoe repair shop in Vancouver, Canada that just so happens to be on our shortlist of Stitchdown-recommended cobblers. Tess is also a woman—who runs Awl Together with her non-binary business partner Ariss—in a field that’s overwhelmingly male-dominated.
We get good and deep into how the two have successfully navigated that landscape, along with her prize-winning Patina Thunderdome boots, her toughest/most enjoyable/most loathed/weirdest repair jobs, dogs eating boots, the boot cookies she gives to dogs who eat boots (stop encouraging them Tess!), Tim Horton’s coffee, Montreal bagels, and plenty, plenty more.
Tess is also just an absolute hoot—we’re pretty sure this episode sets the Shoecast “hey look at us, we’re just sitting here cackling about shoe stuff” record by a country mile.
Give it a listen below!
And here’s some stuff we mention in the episode:
The original Reddit post for Tess’s Thunderdome boots
Some of Tess’s shoe repair work we break down, including dog-eaten boots
And of course, Humphrey the gigantic leather rhino:
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This episode was sponsored by Grant Stone, one of the best values in Goodyear welted footwear, period
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