Baum Celaris Italian Style

 

Baum Celaris Ferrari Azzurro la Plata with lots of hand stitching detail on the SMP saddle and machine stitched Italian tri colour on the bar tape.

Baum Celaris Bar Tape

Busyman custom bar tape for a Baum Cycles Celaris. Matte black textured leather tape with twin row white stitching and ruby red triple row offset perforations.

Exploring Ancient Feet & Fashions in Samos Museum

September 2025: The Archaeological Museum of Vathy was our last stop in Samos before returning to Türkiye. Looking for inspiration as we venture into designing and making our own minimalist leather footwear. I have become very aware of my own, and observant of peoples' feet and footwear. Seeing the structure of footwear and the shape of feet as represented in these ancient marble figures is one small piece of this slowly evolving minimalist/barefoot journey of learning.

Tanning: An Ancient Craft

One of the main reasons for visiting Samos last year was to see the museum of leather tanning which was set up in the island's original tannery in the town of Karlovasi. We were sad to learn that the tannery ceased production in the early 1970's, after nearly a century of operation, and that there was no longer a leather craft industry on the island. The museum was curated to outline the entire process of leather manufacture using the layout of the tannery and its antique tools and machinery to illustrate. 

Wear Testing Sandals in Ege

A weekend on the beautiful Aegean island of Samos was a great opportunity to give the fresh sandals a proper wear testing. Samos is a small greek island just a short ferry ride from our Turkish HQ near Seferihisar. The island is very beautiful and the terrain just perfect to give the sandals a really robust workout. Rough, steep cobbled roads in the old town situated on a hill overlooking the main harbour and 'off the beaten track' paths through coastal pine forests and clifftop olive groves leading to pristine white pebble beaches.

Feride is wearing the new sample with a single strap which is stitched in place at both ends and loops around the big toe, the mid foot and the ankle. We wanted to keep the design minimal with no buckles or other methods of adjusting the strap length. After wearing a few times the strap had stretched a bit and needed to be shortened a couple of centimetres. After a few more months and another length adjustment we feel that the strap has stretched as much as it is likely to. Next time we will try pre-stretching the leather for the strap before fixing the ends in place.

I am wearing an earlier prototype model I made for myself and have been wearing for nearly two years now. They are both minimalist with very thin and flexible zero drop soles and no arch support. Initially we were wearing them with just the thin leather soles but have now fitted a flexible natural rubber outsole  for greater durability.