It's Not for Footballs

Pigskin is not for footballs and never has been. Long before vulcanized rubber took over that game, the term was adopted as a polite way to avoid directly acknowledging that in the 19th century American football was played with air-filled pig's bladders.  Instead, the stuff makes a soft upper for a casual shoe with some texture that becomes more visible as it is polished.

The tasseled pigskin in the photos is very nice as it is but is supposed to be mid-brown once it is colored and attached to soles in a couple of months. The model is a bespoke version of the de Rede, for the late Baron who was such a good customer that he had a model in George Cleverley's line named after him. This was all before the French began emulating the Americans and taxing everything they could get their hands on of course, but according to Cleverley's George Glasgow the Baron had fifty pair of bespoke evening slippers alone, and fifty more pair of patent pumps, an appetite exceeding even Bernie Madoff's taste for Belgian Shoes. Of course, that may have been in part because the senior Glasgow is quite a salesman. If only he had not been so persuasive about how well alligator makes up as a banded slip-on...