Profession footwear hand sewer

Footwear hand sewers join the cut pieces of leather and other materials using simple tools, such as needles, pliers and scissors to produce the uppers. Also, they perform hand stitches for decorative purposes or for assembling the uppers to soles in case of complete footwear.

Would you like to know what kind of career and professions suit you best? Take our free Holland code career test and find out.

Personality Type

Knowledge

  • Footwear stitching techniques

    The technologies, equipment, machines and processes for closing the upper components of footwear by various seams such as closed, lapped, butted, welted, piped and moccasin.

  • Pre-stitching processes and techniques for footwear and leather goods

    Technology including machinery and techniques for the preparation for leather goods components and footwear uppers.

  • Footwear manufacturing technology

    Footwear processes technology and machinery involved. The footwear manufacturing starts in the cutting/clicking room , cutting the uppers and bottom components. The upper components are joined together in the closing room by following a precise order of specific operations: skiving, folding, sewing etc. The closed upper, the insole and other bottom components are brought together in the assembling room, where the main operations are lasting and soling. The process ends with finishing operations in the finishing and packing room.

  • Footwear materials

    The characteristics, components, advantages and limitations of a wide range of materials used in footwear production: leather, leather substitutes (synthetics or artificial materials), textile, plastic, rubber etc. 

  • Footwear quality

    Quality specifications of materials, processes and final products, the most common defects in footwear, quick tests procedures, laboratory tests procedures and standards, adequate equipment for quality checks. Quality assurance of footwear production processes and fundamental concepts on quality including footwear quality framework and standards.

  • Footwear components

    Footwear components both for uppers (vamps, quarters, linings, stiffeners, toe puffs etc.) and bottoms (soles, heels, insoles etc.). Ecological concerns and the importance of recycling. Selection of suitable materials and components based on their influence on the footwear style and characteristics, properties and manufacturability. Procedures and methods in chemical and mechanical processing of leather and non-leather materials.

Skills

  • Apply pre-stitching techniques

    Apply pre-stitching techniques to footwear and leather goods in order to reduce thickness, to reinforce, to mark the pieces, to decorate or to reinforce their edges or surfaces. Be able to operate various machinery for splitting, skiving, folding, stitch marking, stamping, press punching, perforating, embossing, gluing, uppers pre-forming, crimping etc. Be able to adjust the working parameters of the machinery.

  • Work in textile manufacturing teams

    Work harmoniously with colleagues in teams in the textile and clothing manufacturing industries.

Optional knowledge and skills

footwear equipments use it tools footwear machinery reduce environmental impact of footwear manufacturing create solutions to problems

Source: Sisyphus ODB