As a saying goes in shoes manufacturing industry, last comes first. Last, the soul and foundation of shoes making, is an integral part where shoes development and production are built on.
What’s a last?
A last is a foot-like mold used to consolidate the shape of shoes during the shoes manufacturing and repair process. The design, shape and volume of the last that is used to build the shoes play a decisive role of how the final products would look like. Last is not a part of the shoes, more exactly, it’s designed to retain the shapes of particular heel and toe, width and girth measurements, and other features that are desirable in the end products.
Most shoes are built on public lasts that are designed to fit the majority of average feet, and they can represent the anatomical information of the foot to different degrees of accuracy. However, for premium quality custom made shoes or shoes serving medical purpose, custom lasts are precisely made based on the measurements of a person’s feet. The fit of a shoe depends on the design, shape, and volume of the shoe last.
The last for shoes making comes in various forms, shapes and are crafted from different materials.
Different types of lasts
Various kinds of materials are used to make lasts. Traditional materials like hardwoods (maple, beech) or iron of strong durability are used in making lasts, and now new materials like plastic and aluminum are swiftly taken on the footwear industry with the mechanical stresses put on traditional lasts in mass production. Following are three most frequently used materials for making lasts.
* Wood
* Plastic
* Aluminum
Wood
Though wood is a beautiful material to work with, the biggest pitfall is it’s hard to control accuracy and consistency as different kinds of wood feature diverse levels of density and react differently to moisture, in worst circumstances, they might warp and shrink a lot, affecting the fit of the shoes. For one-off shoes or bespoke shoes making, it’s not an issue. However, for shoes requiring ultimate precision and a longer period of order flow, wood is not a popular choice as plastic or aluminum.
Plastic
Plastic is quite a popular alternative to wood that would cause warping problems, and there’s no need to worry about environment impact of plastic being discarded into the landfill. The truth is, now more and more high density plastics are 100% degradable and recyclable as they can melt down to make new lasts when the old ones are not in use anymore.
Aluminum
Aluminum last is widely used in crafting shoes requiring extremely high heat as it would not melt during the production process. Like plastic lasts, aluminum lasts can also be recycled. However, they’re much more expensive to make with higher costs of raw materials and more complicated development process. Therefore, they’re in general only used in big volume footwear orders that allow the expenses to be amortized or shoes with a construction that must go through extreme heat to achieved desired feature.
Each last is designed with a specified toe shape, heel height to fit the type of footwear. A last can be used to construct many styles of shoes, but the toe shape and heel height would be the same. If your designs feature various toe shapes and heel heights, it’s imperative to create more than one pair of shoe lasts.
When producing your line of footwear, it’s important to communicate with your China shoes manufacturer about the last development process, and understand what kind of lasts are used in the manufacturing process. A proper fitting pair of shoe last is vital to creating proper fitting and fashionable footwear. Making the right decisions at the beginning of the manufacturing process can eliminate potential mistakes, and get everything on the right track.
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