These are the shoes in which I went around the whole world last year. Of course, I did not walk around the world, but this was the only pair. These days they really turned out to be too worn out and damaged. But this is not an item just to throw away for me. It was a farewell.

Ever since I read as a child Martin Bauer's novel Soweit die Fuesse tragen (As far as my feet will carry me), I felt special about the walking long distances. There is also a movie based on this material, telling the true story of the German Prisoner Of War Clemens Forell who escaped from a Soviet labor camp and walks though Siberia driven by the willpower to return to his loves ones. My grandfather called walking "the only reliable form of transportation, when all goes wrong". He must have known, as he also returned on foot from the Eastern Front. Consequently, I learned about shoes by experience of walking. But I also learned about the crafts of making and repairing them.