A little bit of history……

Cordwainers n Cobblers

A little bit of research about the history of shoe making will reveal that cordwainer was the preferred term for professional shoemakers.

Apparently it’s based on a French word, cordonnier, which alludes to the Spanish town of Cordoba, which in about the 12^th century, was the home of fine leather. 12^th century Frenchman referred to fine leather as cordouan however this was changed to cordwain in English speaking countries. 

Anyway turns out that these ancient shoemakers used the fine leather from Cordoba to create their wares and as a result became known as Cordwainers.

What about cobblers? Well cobblers don’t have quite the same claim to fame. In fact their shoemaking work was limited to shoe repairs and shoe reconstruction (ah ha the first shoe recyclers!).

So cobblers worked with old (and probably a bit stinky!) leather while cordwainers worked with new leather.

Mmm where does that leave me? I’m an aspiring cordwainer with the heart of a recycling cobbler…

Snippet: An Iraqi journalist pitched a couple of shoes at US President George W. Bush in 2008 (nearly got him in the head) and rival cobblers across the Middle East claimed the credit for making the shoes

Looks like its three stars for the cobblers from me…..


Recycle, Recreate, Risk a bit of Whimsy