A thin piece of leather which runs around the perimeter of the outsole. The sole is then stitched onto the welt. The welt joins the insole to upper on every pair of Tricker’s shoes and boots. At Tricker’s we use Goodyear welts extensively.
The welt is a leather strip that joins the insole to the upper to which the sole is subsequently attached by stitching. Because welted shoes are sewn together rather than glued, skilled craftsmen can dismantle, repair and refurbish them.
There are many different types of welts that we can use at Trickers and but the main 4 types are, Storm (split), Barbour, Flat and MSSR (Ultraflex)
Storm welt – its true name is a split-reverse storm welt, so called because it is split down the centre from one edge to the middle, and you split this half apart and one side is sewn to the upper, on the underside of the shoe and the reverse side is bent back the other way to lie up the shoe, with the remaining unsplit portion extending outwards as the welt. When finished the split piece of leather sits flush to the upper, this will then be ironed into the upper and trimmed. This is the most weather resistant of welts we use and is commonly used on our Country shoes and boots like Bourton, Stow and Henry.
Barbour welt – is very similar to a storm-split reverse welt, apart from the welt has a simple bead that has been moulded by the welt manufacturer, instead of the split down the centre. When sewn into the upper the bead will sit flush against the upper.
Flat welt – This is a flat piece of leather and has the absence of the vertical piece of leather that sits between the sole and side of the upper. This welt is most commonly used in our Town shoes such as Kensington and Belgrave.
MSSR (Ultraflex) welt – This is a split welt similar to the reverse split welt, but is made using a different tannage to give a much softer leather strip. This makes the welt more flexible and is used on our Ultraflex collection on styles such as Robert, Elton and Adam.
