I got a bunch of soft, somewhat thin leather from my parents. Decided to make a one-piece shoe for myself. They are super simple, I basically put a square of leather under my food and draped it, and pinched it, and sewed it: suddenly a shoe appears!
I wet them and more them for a few hours as they dried. I had a cotton sock on one foot, and a wool sock on the other. Wool definitely makes a big difference; the wool covered foot was much warmer during the whole wet foot process, and I think it dried faster too.
They are very soft, and really aren’t meant to last for years. I’ll be happy if they last reasonably well through Pennsic. As long as I stick to grass, rather than rough concrete, the shoes will last much longer. I walked around outside on the rocks and gravel with the wool socks and these shoes, and had very little problem with the shoes. You can definitely FEEL the rocks, but it doesn’t hurt the way it does barefoot.
