stook1
Master Builder
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2015
- Messages
- 3,918
- Reaction score
- 10,337
I don't think it's the judging format, I just think it's the time constraints. I'm not trying to be difficult or confrontational, just pointing out the timelines.
- You posted re: the start of the contest on August 6th, which was also the start of the purchase window.
- People who commented on the 2018 Challenge thread may have seen a notification re: this year's Challenge, but not everyone is going to see it as soon as it's posted, so some people lose a few days. Also, the original timeline was Sept/Oct so people may not have been paying close attention.
- Even if you started looking on the 6th, most people seem to be getting their shoes on Ebay. If you're super lucky, maybe you find something suitable, in your size, and under the max price as a Buy-It-Now, but if it's an auction you can lose a week+ waiting for it to end. And, of course, there's no guarantee you won't get outbid, at which point you're starting over.
- Once you buy some shoes, you're at the mercy of the seller's shipping. If they ship once a week, and they're on the opposite side of the country, it could be another ten days before you get the shoes. Hell, I bought a pair Aug 14th for which I'm now trying to get a refund because the a-hole seller never shipped them at all. So, you could easily be down to two weeks left before you even have a pair of shoes in your possession.
- If you didn't previously participate, and don't have a stock of shoe restoration supplies, you need to evaluate the shoes once you get them and buy the requisite restoration supplies. Some things are specialty items not available with Prime (and not everyone has Prime), so you're purchasing from a mom-n-pop online store that's not getting it to you in a day or two...e.g. it took nearly a week for my dyes to arrive after I purchased them.
- Some processes (e.g. glycerine treatment, or a water soak) can take days to perform and can have a "cooldown" period of several days while they dry, etc.
- As I mentioned in my case, my original plan proved unworkable, so I had to switch directions. That required another round of purchases/shipping/delays, so I simply ran out of time.
- And of course I don't think anyone here is a cobbler, so we're all doing this in our spare time. Like shoenoob, I have three kids who just went back to school so there's that and various other things that are challenging to juggle.
I don't really mind missing out on the contest, but I do think the timeline discourages really crazy modifications/restorations which are the kind of thing that add the most value to the community in terms of letting people know what's possible - e.g. "Jeez, these are cool old longwings but ____ is a problem. I wonder if that's fixable?" For example, I am probably going to rip off the rubber heel on my project shoes and construct a leather heel from some NOS leather heel stacks I bought on Ebay after switching direction. I may fail spectacularly, but if so it will at least be a cautionary tale for other people. If I succeed, then next time mreams99 might take the plunge and rip his heel off entirely to do the brown heel/edge treatment he really wanted.
I will add I'd love to know more about how florent redid the soles on his Church's as he did an awesome job.
Anyway, just my 2 cents. Lots of great work here, and thanks for running the Challenge!
Would likewise love to learn more about @florent resole work. Very impressive.