The Workshop

The Original Shandals® Co. was born in June 2019 as a collaboration between the creator of Shandals® Alan James Raddon and his former Apprentice Ruth Emily Davey who now owns her own brand, RED shoes. 

In 2019 we discovered Shandals® were being badly copied and reproduced by factories in China, then marketed all over social media. Several of our existing customers sent us links to hundreds of ‘fake’ websites who had stolen our photographs from our website and made cheap PU plastic knock-offs of our work.

We are still chasing the fakes and reporting them as they pop up. However, quite often in life a negative becomes a positive.

We discovered through the experience of having our work copied that there are large numbers of people who want to buy readymade ‘off the self’ Shandals®, not made from cheap plastic but handmade from a variety of beautiful soft leathers, and designed to be repairable when they wear down and made exclusively by us.

In June 2019, The Original Shandals® Co. signed a lease on a 60sq ft workshop in Machynlleth, Mid-Wales, UK. This is where we make your Shandals®. 

We only sell direct from our online shop and workshop in Machynlleth, so if you think you’ve found us online elsewhere, you haven’t found an original pair of Shandals®, only – sadly – a copy.

We have spent the past few years training our small team - Naps, Paul, and JB how to make Shandals®. Alan and Ruth hand-picked a collection of leather specifically suitable for unlined non bespoke Shandals®, as it is soft, thick and flexible and designed to last. All our Shandals® are made to last and be repairable.  

Every step by step process involved in making Shandals® is completed in our workshop by Ruth, and the small team. The workshop is set-up for each process to smoothly transition into the next - we don’t make in any great volumes - we take time to stitch each and every pair on a hand wheeled Singer sewing machine - designed to work slowly and with great care.

Our small workshop is carefully laid out to make smaller batches of Shandals® in comparison to our bespoke hand cut Shandals®. Our Shandals® are made on our old clockwork Singer machines, and a variety of tools to hand-craft your pair of Shandals®.

In a world where fast fashion and built-in-obsolescence threatens to undermine quality products, as well as slower handmade processes and craft, we believe it is extremely important to be creating footwear which is made to the highest standard - designed to last and be repairable. 

We emboss each pair of Shandals® by hand with The Original Shandals® Co. logo. Our mark represents quality, handmade footwear, made in the UK from the highest quality leathers we can find. We sign and date every single pair we make under the tongue - our Makers Mark of Good Quality and Genuine Shandals®.