Hand made boots and their maker

Jarmo Juntunen said:

Traditional crafts are becoming extinct. Especially in a small country such as Finland. Not many are prepared to pay for good quality and hand manufacture when you can go to the closest supermarket and buy cheap crap that will last for the closest demand at hand and can be tossed out after that. That's why I have great respect for people like this: Mr Pekka Lahti, a 4th generation shoemaker who continues to make high quality cowboy boots (in Finland, mind you!) to a small but faithful clientele.

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Jarmo Juntunen said:

Traditional crafts are becoming extinct. Especially in a small country such as Finland. Not many are prepared to pay for good quality and hand manufacture when you can go to the closest supermarket and buy cheap crap that will last for the closest demand at hand and can be tossed out after that. That's why I have great respect for people like this: Mr Pekka Lahti, a 4th generation shoemaker who continues to make high quality cowboy boots (in Finland, mind you!) to a small but faithful clientele.

Jerome Juntunen The man himself​

Men like this are national treasures. It's so wonderful to have the ability to know craftsmen who have a mastery of materials and make things we can afford. What always impresses me is that they are proud of what they do and of making folk happy.

This is missing from nay workers in factories, who just are clocking in, getting the work done and on the way grabbing a few smokes, limning up for lunch from the food truck and perhaps grabbing 15 minutes or so at a card game with their coworkers.

When they go home, they take nothing with them except their soiled clothes and sweat and grime.

This fellow, however, remembers each customer and shares a little of his magic with each sale or repair.

Please post more!

Asher

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Tom Robbins said:

This is a fine tribute to a craftsman and an outdated philosophy of making quality goods that last. Well done, Jarmo!

Speaking of things that last, I have a very old hand-me-down bedside lamp that my mom gave me around 40 years ago. It was inexpensively manufactured around WWII and is still works fine. My "modern" computer desk lamps, on the other hand, generally get scrapped and replaced every other year. It's a remarkable situation, isn't it?

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Jarmo Juntunen said:

Asher and Doug, thank you for your comments! Asher, I feel the same way about this guy. I went to his factory (by prior appointment) to pick a new pair of boots. He doesn't run the sales officially at the factory but always welcomes people there for purchase and a chat. He was a kind man, very nice to talk to and certainly happy to greet even the younger customers:

Here he has just presented a few pieces of imitation snake skin to Laura. Expression on her face tells everything... Picture itself is no photografic gem but I had to shoot from the hip not to miss the moment.

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