About Us

The Shoemakers Academy

 

The Shoemakers Academy is pleased to offer shoemaking courses, textbooks, supplies, and professional coaching to aspiring shoemakers all around the world.

I’m Wade Motawi, “The Shoe Dog.” In 2004, I created The Sneaker Factory.net website to share with other aspiring shoemakers all the materials and information I wish were available to me when I was starting out. Now, after many years of online sales and 30 years of experience working in the shoe trades, my team has created a bigger and better selection including online courses, textbooks, and supplies for all levels of shoemakers.

Welcome to the Shoemakers Academy.com.

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The Shoemakers Academy is pleased to offer shoemaking courses, textbooks, supplies, and professional coaching to aspiring shoemakers all around the world.
Wade Motawi, The Shoe Dog, teaching a course on shoemaking.

Why Choose Us

01

Shoemakers Academy will guide you step-by-step to become a better shoemaker. We have 30+ years of knowledge and experience in the footwear industry and aim to help you reach your goals faster.

Our Mission

02

Our mission is help aspiring, creative, individuals overcome the challenges of footwear design, development, and starting a shoe brand. 

Our Vision

03

Our vision is to offer shoemaking tools, supplies, materials, coaching, education, and community to all types and levels of shoemakers worldwide. Just starting or already in the biz? We got you!

What Our Students Say

Feedback

I Enjoyed Every Lesson!

“Wade is a great teacher. The courses are easy to understand and he delivers his deep shoemaking knowledge with interesting personal anecdotes.”

Jose R.

Footwear Developer

Highly Recommend!

“The Shoe Dog and his team helped us launch our brand. We went from an idea to actual samples in 6 weeks. We shipped our first ocean container after only 5 months and our product is a huge hit after our first year of sales.”

shoe school student
Andrea S.

Brand Owner

Excellent! Valuable Information

“I finally understand how all the pieces of shoemaking come together – it’s like I was right inside the shoe factory. Such valuable information."

shoe school student
Jim R.

Future Shoe Designer

Fantastic! Thorough and Applicable!

"I've read your content and it's fantastic. It's for sure the most thorough content on footwear creation, it's very applicable and it's very exciting that you are developing videos from it."

Dan Cocking, Founder of Laceless Design
Dan C

Founder, Laceless Design