december-2012

SOLE TRADERS
The Hungarian capital has a long and proud tradition of shoe-making,
which draws buyers from around the world. GW meets the craftsmen
and women behind the famous ‘Budapesters’
Since the fall of the Iron
Curtain, Budapest has
experienced economic
growth and opened its doors to
trade and tourism. Market halls,
historic coff ee houses and
thermal baths aside, visitors
fl ock here today to purchase the
handmade, double-stitched
Budapester shoes for which the
city is internationally famous.
Near the Danube, on the Pest
side of the city, is Budapest
shopping boulevard Haris köz,
where the shoe stores of
Heinrich Dinkelacker, Sándor
Rozsnyai and László Vass sit side
by side. Dinkelacker is a German
company that set up here in the
1960s, while Vass and Rozsnyai
are family-run Budapest
businesses that look proudly
back on a long tradition. Vass
has been a shoemaker for more
than 40 years and opened his
fi rst cupboard-sized store here
in 1978. His daughter Eva has
already opened her second shop
a stone’s throw away. A few steps
further is the shop of Sándor
Rozsnyai, who completed his
training as a shoe engineer at the
Budapest University of
Technology. He sells Budapester
shoes, which were fi rst worn in
the 19th century and are now a
timeless classic.
Shoes are a major export for
Budapest. Businessmen, in
particular, like the high-quality
footwear for the style and status
it gives them. People travel from
far and wide to fi nd the perfect
Ein Mitarbeiter des Schuhmacherbetriebs
von László Vass bei seiner Arbeit
An employee at László Vass’s
shoemaking business at work
It takes 100 individual stages to craft
fine leather into shoes that can last
10 years and still be repaired
pair of Budapester shoes,
characterised by their East
European full brogue – the
pattern on the upper sole – and
wide, straight shape. The handcrafted
shoes are considerably
cheaper in Hungary than in
neighbouring European
countries or in Asia. Around
€400 buys a pair of hand-sewn
Budapesters. In Japan they go
for triple that. Yet despite high
demand, Vass has no plans to
branch out into other countries.
His team of shoemakers at the
factory already need all their
time and energy to craft the
2,000 pairs of shoes that are sold
at Vass on Haris köz each year.
The boxes which are piled high
to the ceiling contain not only
the famous Budapester shoes
but also handmade Oxford,
Derby, Norwegian, Vienna,
whole-cut and Italian designs.
Customers can, on request, have
B U D A P E S T
their feet measured, but most
sizes are available on the shelves.
Only customers with larger than
average feet or those who want
to order a one-off pair crafted
from expensive ostrich or
caiman leather need wait the
couple of weeks for delivery.
But what goes on behind the
scenes at the factory between
order and delivery remains
largely a secret to customers. It is
then that the hard work takes
place, the fi ne leather
dexterously crafted into shoes in
more than 100 individual stages;
shoes that can last 10 years and
still be repaired. As László Vass
GW—109