Betty Ennis has incorporated a lifetime of learning in art, craft, textiles, fashion, film, music industry and building ... into the trade of shoemaking since 2010. She learnt her basic shoemaking skills by completing a short course at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and multiple advanced workshops in Tasmania with bespoke shoemaker Luna Newby.

Betty soon started creating her own designs using only vintage sewing machines, knives, hammer and tacks, bench sander and glues. She hand cuts and moulds traditional vegetable tan leather toe puffs, heel stiffeners and stacked leather heels.

Sourcing unusual and one-off finds of quality leathers, she creates funky men’s and women’s shoes and boots on commission and her signature range of unisex lace-up derbies. Motivated by never being able to find what she likes, her recent designs have a definite nod to the sixties.