Who designed this shoe?
Our collection comes from a town called Athani, India. It’s located in Northern Karnataka, a region with a centuries-long shoemaking history.
Sometime in the last two centuries, artisans in the region came up with a new design for woven leather slip-ons with a distinctive braid around the edge, which is the basis for our collection.
Every pair of Mohinders is made in Athani, by third- and fourth- generation master shoemaking families.
Heirloom shoemaking
Every pair of Mohinders takes over 37 steps to make, start-to-finish. Every shoe is made-by-hand; master shoemakers specialize in different parts of the process like weaving, skiving, stitching, hammering, and fitting on a last. Up to six shoemakers, often relatives, will pass an in-progress shoe around a workshop until it’s complete.Â
We’ve worked with the same Athani-based cooperative of shoemakers since 2012 in a collaborative effort to create Mohinders signature styles.
Traditionally tanned leather + natural dyes
The water buffalo leather used to make Mohinders is produced in small family tanneries about an hour’s drive from Athani. The way it’s made is an old, small-batch and manual process called bag-tanning.
Bag-tanned leather is a method of turning hides into shoemaking-ready leather. It’s done by hand, using a few simple ingredients: water + limestone for pre-tanning, then acacia tree bark + myrobalan as sources of tannins.
Made to be worn. Make them yours.
Think of raw denim or high quality boots: superior materials take a little effort to break in. The result? A custom fit that stands the test of time.Â
Our full grain water buffalo leather is no different. The more you wear your leather shoes, the patina deepens and they form to your foot’s shape. Soon they’ll be your reliable, daily go-to shoe. No two pairs look the same.
Choices to reduce waste + create shoes that last
With each material used to make Mohinders, we do our best to reduce waste and negative environmental impact.Â
• We support leather being made in traditional, non-industrialized tanning methods that use plant-based ingredients and no synthetic chemicals
• Our lining leather sourced from in a tannery with a Leather Working Group gold ratingÂ
• We use natural dyes: iron, myrobalan, Obenauf’s leather oil
• Our shoes are stored and shipped in organic cotton reusable bags