Petru & Claymoor: Handmade Shoes from Brașov, Transylvania

The useful part

Many years ago, I flew into Bucharest and drove north to Brașov to visit a shoemaking factory. You hear "Transylvania" and naturally think of Dracula, castles, dark forests, and all of the imagery that has surrounded the region for centuries. In reality, it is simply a very beautiful part of the world that likely gets less recognition than it deserves.

How it works

• Eventually, however, writing about shoes turned into wanting to create them.
• Petru & Claymoor shoes are clicked by hand, lasted by hand, welted by hand, and sole-stitched by hand.
• There are still craftsmen in Romania who know how to make shoes the old way.
• There is a difference between saying, "I would never spend €2,300 on shoes," and saying, "Those shoes shouldn't cost €2,300." When you understand how they are made, the price begins to make considerably...
• Their workshop is fittingly located in Brașov, Transylvania.

What to take from it

Because while everyone knows Northampton, Florence, Paris, and Tokyo when discussing great shoes, there are other corners of the world where exceptional shoemaking continues to survive. For me, though, one of the most interesting things about the trip was seeing another side of Transylvania: its tradition of shoemaking. There is an old-world craftsmanship that still survives there, something that has become increasingly difficult to find in Western Europe.

Example or evidence

• From Shoe Enthusiast to Shoe Brand Some longtime readers of The Shoe Snob might recognize the name Claymoor.
• Before Petru & Claymoor existed, Mircea Cioponea ran Claymoor's List, a very well-made shoe blog that covered many of the great shoemakers and brands of the classic footwear world.
• Mircea on the left, not sure who in the center, and Petru on the right Handmade in Transylvania "Handmade" is probably one of the most abused words in the footwear industry.

Details worth keeping

Leaving Bucharest and heading toward Brașov takes you up through the Carpathian Mountains, through this incredibly beautiful part of Romania that, for someone who has never been there, probably exists more in mythology than reality. There is certainly something alluring about it. Mircea was, first and foremost, a shoe enthusiast.

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