Bespoke shoemakerVilnius
Shelves of wooden shoe lasts in the DM Creation workshop
Shoes can change your life.
— Cinderella

Custom-fit shoes, designed with you and made by hand in Vilnius.

Measured to one pair of feet and made for the way they walk. No two lasts are alike, and no two pairs ever leave the bench the same.

Hands holding a wooden last with a pale leather upper drawn over it, lace holes punched along the opening

Portfolio

Selected pairs

View the full portfolio

How it works

Eight stages, from foot to finished pair

Follow each stage to see what happens at the bench, and what you decide.

  1. A sheet of paper, a pencil and a folding tape measure laid out on a wooden floor
    MeasureComfortable shoes start with accurate measurements.
  2. The maker drawing shoe designs in pen, watercolour sketches of finished models spread across the bench
    DesignThe most inspiring part of the process, where there are no limits to the imagination.
  3. A pair of carved wooden lasts held in both hands
    Wooden Shoe LastThe wooden form your shoes are built on, shaped to your measurements.
  4. Hands smoothing paper tape over a wooden last, a tape measure across the lap
    3D ModelThe design taken off the paper and built onto the last.
  5. Overhead view of the bench: cut white pattern pieces of a shoe upper laid on the green cutting mat under a lamp
    Shoe PatternTurning a three-dimensional shape into flat pieces — an art in itself.
  6. A pair of red leather trial shoes with pale stacked heels, resting on a grey cloth
    Mock-up ModelA test shoe, made to be tried on, criticised and corrected.
  7. A knife cutting a curved piece of grey leather against a steel rule on the cutting mat
    Leather CuttingThe chosen leather is cut, thinned and stitched into an upper.
  8. The leather upper being tacked over the wooden last with a lasting hammer
    FittingThe upper is lasted, the sole attached, and the pair is finished.
Dana Minkė smiling at her workbench, a pencil and a leather piece in her hands, a tape measure across her lap

The maker

Made by Dana Minkė

Dana trained as a shoemaker in Kaunas, under Boleslovas Kazakevičius, and in Paris at ESMOD, before opening the Vilnius workshop in 2016.

Read her story

Book a consultation in the Vilnius workshop.

Your feet measured, models and leathers in hand, and an honest conversation about what the pair should be.

Start your pair