10/13/2011

Featured Designer: Clogmaster

I've been reading great things about Clogmaster for years. How founder Cecilia Tidlund attends to every customer personally. How she guides each visitor to her fittings to the exact pair of clogs for their feet. How those customers return to order pair after pair. How celebrities from Dustin Hoffman to Brian May to Mario Batali and Wolfgang Puck swear by the perfection of her work. But clogs are clogs, right? How good can this Portland, Oregon based clog maker's shoes truly be?

Cecilia tells the story of a neurosurgeon who depends on his Clogmaster clogs. Once he opens up a patient's skull, he can't stop 'til the surgery is finished. His own personal record was 18 hours on his feet. And he'd be the first to tell you he couldn't have done it without a pair of Clogmasters on his feet.

Last month, Cecilia and her Clogmaster crew were in Chicago to spread the gospel of footwear that fits here in the midwest. I wanted to take the opportunity to chat with the grande dame of clogs herself. But I also wanted to see what the process was like. On a beautiful fall day I wandered up to the third floor of the Swedish American Museum to find one room of the library overflowing with wooden shoes. Cecilia had me roll up my pant legs. (Thank God I'd chosen to wear a decent pair of clogs and not some shoe that would have earned me censure for sure.) She took one glance at my feet and called out to her assistant to bring over a clog or two within striking distance of my size. I put on a pair, and down on the floor she went to press in the toes to determine whether there was adequate space within. The length was more than ample. Cecilia called out for a slightly smaller pair...this one fitted with one of her carefully crafted uppers (or tops as she calls them) designed to hug the foot snugly depending on the width of your foot, the height of your arch, and more. It took less than 5 minutes. And I soon found myself experiencing clogs as I'd never known they could feel. The pair on my feet fit like a glove. All the concavities on the bottom of my feet were being embraced by the wooden curves of the sole. My feet felt secure within. And while I wouldn't want to take on an 18 hour marathon with them right off the bat, I certainly felt like they could go the distance.

Once my proper fit had been determined, notations were made, and my name and vital statistics recorded, I was free to browse through the styles on display, the leather, suede, and nubuck (not a material Cecilia happily offers) swatches, and the notebooks of photos of clogs previous customers have ordered. Naturally, I gravitated to something off the beaten track: a pair of shearling clog boots in a rich olive green nubuck with a black sole.

How good can a pair of Clogmaster clogs be? Pretty amazing, I have to say. Cecilia made a believer out of me. And now I'm here to let her make believers out of you.

ECHID: How do you explain to a potential customer how much better your clogs will feel as opposed to what she or he could by from maker of traditional Swedish clogs?

CLOGMASTER: Because we fit your foot literally. We have two widths on the base. And then I'm able to make the leather to hold your foot on more proper to the base. So we can go with the length and width of the base that you need and then make the top in a different size than the bottom is.

ECHID: How do you make the upper differently? Is it a larger toe box? Or tighter over the instep?

CLOGMASTER: The most important thing is that the clog hits you nice and snug across the instep…so your foot doesn't slide up and hit the front of the toes or that you have to grip to hold onto a clog. Then you lose the whole orthopedic value of it. A clog is supposed to relax your 26 bones, 33 joints, and 100 tendons, ligaments, and muscles in each foot. Walk with a rolling motion of the wood using your ankles and your lower leg muscles. And when you strengthen your ankles, even if you have a flat foot, you can actually hold up your arches a little bit more than if your ankles are weak. Then the ankles just keep trying to push the arches up.

ECHID: What are the orthopedic benefits of clogs? What specific problems do they address?

CLOGMASTER: When I came to Los Angeles in 1976, the first thing that happened to me was a customer found me that had multiple sclerosis. And she immediately invited me to meet an orthopedic surgeon who was doing research about this and her physical therapist. And they had found that the rolling motion of the wood helped people who had walking disabilities to throw a step properly. And they had also found that the wood was more lateral support. If you started to roll your ankle out [while walking], a rubber sole continued to compress and you'd sprain your ankle. Versus wood which doesn't compress and you have enough strength to pull back up. And that's, of course, again that the top has to hold you properly onto the base.

ECHID: So the clog becomes one with your foot.

CLOGMASTER: Exactly! So then they started to send me patients. Instead of doing bunion surgery because that's 85% hereditary and it basically is caused by how you bend your foot to push off a step. Morton's neuroma which is an inflamed tendon that is pressing on a nerve. Some doctors think you should just cut the nerve and it doesn't hurt anymore. (laughs grimly) And then you don't feel a couple of toes for the rest of your life. But if you don't bend your foot…. I mean, the last real shoe American women wore in this country were saddle shoes. And men, bench made lace up good leather shoes. There was very little bend in them, and they held your foot proper onto the base. And when you roll up onto the ball of your foot in a bendable shoe, your push-off pressure, depending on the speed you're walking, is 150 to 500 lbs. If you're not stabilized and you're rolling, pronating, or supinating, you're pulling all those tendons, and that's where the plantar fasciitis comes in. And the Morton's neuromas. And the bunions. And the detached Achilles tendon. And the cartilage wearing out in the knee. And the hip rolling forward. And the whole pattern is off.

When you wear a "flip-flop" [Ed. note: I wish I could convey the strength of emotion with which this word was spoken], there's nothing holding you on on top. And your feet are gripping and bending at the same time.

(smiles mischievously) And that other plastic, colorful thing that we shouldn't talk about?

ECHID: (laughs) We don't name that one!

CLOGMASTER: Nothing holding onto the top of your foot. You're floating in there on some (laughs) marshmallow material that wouldn't support one bone in your foot if you walked wrong on it.

And then we have these proud women now that are wearing ballerina slippers. See, in Los Angeles we had impact with the flip-flops when I told them [walking in them] was like high impact aerobics without a bra on. And they knew they'd paid (feigns being aghast at the thought) $20,000 for new boobs! (laughs) So they swore they'd never wear flip-flops again!

(deadpan) In Portland, that has no effect whatsoever. (laughs)

ECHID: (laughs) You told me a story before we started the interview about how the diagnoses you see have changed over the years.

CLOGMASTER: Kids were growing up in Stride Rite, Buster Brown, saddle shoes, lace up shoes. And the patients [the doctors] first sent me were 50 and 60 year olds. That was 1976 to 1980. Then, by the time I left in 2008, the patients were 15 to 35 year olds. Growing up in bad shoes. No more Stride Rites. No more lace up leather shoes.

You're safer here in Chicago and in New York because the weather is against you. So part of the year you have to wear a good shoe. Versus southern California. Even in Portland I've seen people wearing socks and flip-flops.

ECHID: What's involved in a fitting? You just finished fitting me and I was amazed at how right your properly fitted clog felt on my foot. But how would you describe the process?

CLOGMASTER: Well, people come to fittings, and we start by fitting the base of the foot. Length and width. And then we pull out different sizes of how I should make that [upper] to hold that foot better. And then they go select from the 108 different colors and materials and start to design their shoes looking at pictures of years of styles people have chosen.

ECHID: And a customer can custom design all of that. I've seen contrasting color straps and accent pieces.

CLOGMASTER: Yeah. Yeah.

ECHID: How do you explain your success? You were telling me a story earlier about how someone told you years ago that clogs would never sell in America. And yet here you are, still selling clogs. How did you manage to last?

CLOGMASTER: Well, "manage to last", I think, has a lot of explanations. I don't give up easily. It's such a passion. And satisfaction to see people with walking disabilities, bunions, toes missing, walking easier. Just keep on going. Hoping for that big moment. I've done it for so many years, I don't know what I would resettle into. When I was leaving Los Angeles, [customers] said, "You close and disappear, we'll find you and kill you!" (laughs) I have people who can't walk from their bed to the restroom without slipping my clogs on. I have a woman who went through three pregnancies with brittle bone disease in her feet. And without clogs her bones just break. And the MS ladies. And then the bunions. It's the funniest thing. (mimics customer) "Oh, it's so much pressureon the bunion!!!" And we just put this Visco-Gel toe spacer in between. And they're like, "How did you do that???" Well, we put your big toe back where it belongs. See?

ECHID: You're a magician.

CLOGMASTER: No. Just well trained by great orthopedic surgeons who don't waste time and money on unnecessary foot surgery.

ECHID: As you look back on your many years fitting customers in clogs, what are your proudest memories?

CLOGMASTER: Proudest moment? I've had a lot of fun moments. I fitted the Bolshoi Ballet ballerinas in clogs when they fractured bones. A good orthopedist can't cast their ankle for nine weeks 'cause you'd ruin their career with atrophy for a year. So an orthopedic surgeon in Los Angeles discovered that clogs with a slingback strap on will do the same thing as a cast. I've seen Bolshoi ballerinas go up en pointe in clogs! (laughs) Still exercising the ankle!

ECHID: Oh,…my…gosh!

CLOGMASTER: One guy came walking in with a cane and said, "I heard this is good for people with MS." And I said, "Yeah!" So he was walking back and forth. And I said, "You will feel strain over the top [of your foot] and you will feel your lower leg muscles." He said, "This is something to get used to." And I said, "That's what I'm trying to explain." And he said, "No. I'm listening to you explain how to break them in. But I haven't walked this fast in ten years!"

ECHID: Wow!

CLOGMASTER: He said, "My steps are propelling me in this shoe!" It's like "Whoa!"

ECHID: You gave him his life back!

CLOGMASTER: That feels good.

ECHID: Brilliant! Wonderful talking to you! Cecilia, thank you so very much!

CLOGMASTER: You're very welcome.

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What do you think? Interested in taking the plunge? Cecilia Tidlund and her Clogmaster team are returning to New York City the second week of November. Contact them via the e-mail address below and set up an appointment for your own fitting. Excerpts from their press release are here:

Clogmaster returns to New York City November 9, 10, 11, & 12 for fittings by appointment.

CLOGMASTER "Fittings by Appointment" in New York City(MANHATTAN - 40^TH & LEXINGTON AREA) Wednesday Nov. 9, through Saturday Nov 12, 2011 - 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.

1. PLEASE REQUEST A TIME. - IF IT IS AVAILABLE, YOU WILL RECEIVE A CONFIRMATION WITH THE ADDRESS & TIME. BY E-MAIL. (SAVE THE E-MAIL) NOTE: YOU ARE NOT CONFIRMED UNTIL YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE CONFIRMATION E-MAIL.

2. PLEASE INCLUDE IN YOUR REQUEST: YOUR FULL NAME, A CONTACT PHONE NUMBER, YOUR AMERICAN SHOE SIZE, YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS, AND YOUR BILLING ADDRESS IF IT IS DIFFERENT FROM YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS.

3. E-MAIL CLOGS@CLOGMASTER.COM TO REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT.

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