Small business: Wellington’s Shoe School ‘underdog’ moving to Melbourne

Shoe School founder Lou Clifton at her workshop in Newtown, Wellington. Photo / Supplied

Lou Clifton started Shoe School after her “obsession” with shoemaking led her into the industry. She says the wave of interest during the pandemic has faded with the cost of living crisis and recession hitting students and her business.

Clifton will move the business to Melbourne in October where she says many Kiwi shoemakers have also relocated to take advantage of industry support that is lacking in Aotearoa.

What is Shoe School?

I teach shoemaking workshops. I studied design at university, and when I graduated decided that I was supposed to have a career in craft.

I thought whatever craft I choose, it’s going to be hard because at that time there weren’t very many jobs around in craft. So I thought, if it’s going to be hard I might as well choose the coolest craft I can think of, so I chose shoemaking because I had always been quite obsessed with it.

Clifton says supply costs have risen steeply since the pandemic. Photo / Supplied

Why did you start the business?

I started by going to Australia for a short course and I was hooked. After I got back, a lot of people were really fascinated by it and I knew that to start a bespoke shoe business or a shoe brand would be quite hard given a lot of the supporting industries had moved offshore.

I thought if there’s lots of people interested in how to make shoes, then I should start at the very beginning, which is a shoe school instead of starting a shoe fashion brand.

What does the shoemaking industry look like in New Zealand?

It’s pretty small. There are still some amazing shoe brands and bespoke shoemakers around who are pretty epic, but the industry is really, really small.

After Covid, it’s only getting harder because the cost of materials are going up so much.

Shoe School plans to make the move to Australia in October after a tough few years in Aotearoa. Photo / Supplied

How did you find running the business the last few years?

Very, very scary. Just before the first lockdown ended, I worked out that I had two weeks of savings to go and that was it. I was pretty terrified.

Ever since then, initially a huge amount of people wanted to learn because everyone wanted to reinvest their time and energy into learning crafts.

Then of course the recession hit and all the costs of supplies went up. So it’s just kind of yo-yo’d all over the show since Covid.

What does enrolment look like now?

With the cost of living crisis and the recession, enrolments really dropped off which is why I decided to relocate to Melbourne unfortunately.

I know that people still really want to come to Shoe School and it’s still on a lot of people’s bucket lists. So the interest is there, but people are just really reluctant to book.

Clifton says the shoemaking industry has shrunk in New Zealand after many shoe manufacturers have left the country for greener pastures overseas. Photo / Supplied

Why move to Melbourne?

There are five million people in Melbourne. There are five million people in the whole of New Zealand.

There are a lot more shoemakers in Melbourne and a lot more supporting industries over there. I know quite a few New Zealanders who are in the shoemaking industry there.

There’s a one-year TAFE (Melbourne Polytechnic) course in Melbourne, which is really amazing. That doesn’t exist in New Zealand.

A lot of people have been through that course and are familiar with shoemaking. I hope that’s going to help generate a little bit of interest in Shoe School.

What are your plans for Shoe School in Melbourne?

I’m moving into a workshop in Abbotsford, Melbourne. I’m sharing the space with Post Soul Studio, a shoemaking fashion brand, which is really exciting.

Shoe School on Newtown's Riddiford St. Photo / Support

What is your advice for other people looking to start a business?

My advice would be to find a mentor, ask lots of questions, do your research. Build a community - they don’t need to be doing exactly what you are doing.

When I started out, I knew a couple of people who were in business. One person was an entrepreneur, so he was the person I took my business plan and my ideas to. And he went through my business plan with me and told me about aspects of the business plan to think about now, areas that I’d done really well and other things that needed more attention.

I had another mentor helping me with the creative side of it and to identify the core values of my business.

What challenges did you expect before you started the business?

I wasn’t expecting to be taken seriously, because at the time it was a really unusual and unique business idea and I didn’t have much training.

I didn’t have a lot of capital. I did have some savings. I started really small just working on my weekends and teaching workshops when I could before I launched the business full-time.

I wasn’t a part of the business world and I learned a lot of the business skills through my own research.

I expected to find that supplies were really hard to get hold of, and I was correct. They were really hard to get hold of.

But I guess the thing about being a little bit of an underdog is people like to support you and if they believe in you, and they can see that you’re passionate about something, then they’ll put in a little bit of extra effort to help you out. That’s the benefit of being an underdog.

Alka Prasad is an Auckland-based business reporter covering small business and retail.