Since 2019 · Porto, Portugal
We make shoes
to be repaired.
VAELorine is a small footwear workshop and an even smaller web shop. We started with one lasting jack, a second-hand sewing machine and a stubborn belief that a pair of shoes should outlive the season it was bought in.
OUR POSITION
Nothing here is
designed to be thrown away.
Most footwear is welded together with adhesive. It is fast, cheap and impossible to take apart – which is why the average pair is landfilled after roughly two years of wear.
Everything we sell is stitched: welted, blake-stitched or hand-lasted, so the sole can be cut away and rebuilt. A resole costs a fraction of a new pair and buys another decade. That single decision drives every other one we make.
What the bench has produced
Figures for the workshop as a whole since we opened, updated each January.
Pairs made
0
Pairs resoled
0
Return rate
0
THE PROCESS
Four weeks from hide to box
01
Clicking
Hides are graded by hand and cut so the tightest fibres land on the vamp, where the shoe flexes.
02
Closing
Uppers are stitched, skived and burnished. A pair passes through six hands before it sees a last.
03
Lasting
Leather is pulled over a wooden last and left to hold its shape for at least ten days.
04
Welting
A leather welt is stitched through the insole and upper, then the sole is attached – repairable by design.
From the workshop
HOW WE OPERATE
Four rules we do not break
We publish the spec
Upper, sole, lining and last are listed on every product page. If we cannot say what it is made of, we do not sell it.
No invented reviews
You will not find a wall of five-star quotes written by people who do not exist. Ask us for a reference and we will put you in touch with a customer.
Repair before replace
Send us a worn pair and we will quote a resole before we quote a new pair. Repairs are handled in the same workshop that made them.
Honest pricing
The price is the cost of making the shoe plus a fixed margin. There is no wholesaler and no licence fee, which is why a good pair starts near $168.
Questions about fit?
Tell us what you normally wear and how it feels, and we will tell you which size to order – including whether to go up a width.
THE LOGBOOK
Join the logbook
One email a month: new lasts, restocked sizes, and the occasional factory-second drop.