One of our favorite—but too often slept on—makers out of Bandung, Indonesia is Midas Bootmaker. A more-casual offshoot of dress shoemaker Winson, Midas offers meticulously handmade footwear at an extremely attractive price. They recently had a big hit on their hands from offering an MTO in Russian hatch grain calf from British tannery J&FJ Baker—and now the books are open once again for another Russian hatch grain made-to-order over at House of Agin.
Why’s this such a big deal, you ask? Well, we’ll tell you!
Russian hatch grain calf is a uniquely beautiful leather from the last remaining oak bark tannery in Great Britain, yes…but its backstory is absolutely fascinating.
From the 17th to the early 20th century, Russian leather had a legendary reputation for its superior strength, resilience, and wear, thanks to a little-known formula of natural oils used in its intensive tanning process (the stuff apparently smelled great, too). Sadly, the institutional knowledge of making this distinctive leather was lost following the Russian Revolution, and attempts by others to reproduce it consistently came up short.
Then, in 1973, the shipwreck of an 18th century Russian trade vessel, the Metta Catharina, was discovered in the English Channel, and in its cargo hold were several astoundingly well-preserved rolls of this rare Russian leather made from reindeer hides. Using this reindeer leather as reference, J&FJ Baker logged several years of experimentation to mimic the formula, and eventually came up with a Russian leather recipe that replicates the real thing, saving the leather from extinction. You can read a deeper take on this intriguing leather here.
Plus, you’ve got a tidy roster of customization options at your disposal here, from shoe/boot style (service boots, monkey boots, swooptie boots, plain toe bluchers, wholecuts, the works), to construction method, sole selection, hardware, and more. House of Agin is only taking orders for this limited-time MTO event until the end of April—don’t wait around.