Why This Italian Shoemaker Came to a Small Kansas Town to Pursue His Craft | KCUR

EUREKA, Kan. — Of all the businesses you might expect to see in the small town of Eureka, Kansas — population 2,332 — a skilled Italian shoemaker making custom shoes is unlikely to be among them.

Yet this is where you'll find Sam Vasta – “a pasta guy,” he says – quietly practicing his craft in a small workshop behind his house.

His journey here included stops in four countries as well as a stint in a refugee camp after a 2009 earthquake destroyed his home and business in Italy.

Before arriving in Kansas, he had lived in Vermont, which he found too expensive and too far from the work he wanted to pursue.

“One of the things I wanted to get involved in was … cowboy boot making, and so I knew the area had to be … from the Midwest to the West,” said Vasta, who lives in Eureka with his wife, Aja, and their two teenage daughters, Nina and Abby.

Shoemaker Sam Vasta with his wife Aja and teenage daughters Nina and Abi.

“So, I knew there was an area we wanted to be in, and then we started looking online for potential homes. And that's how it happened.”

Here's a summary of Vasta's journey to Kansas: Vasta was born in Italy in 1968 and moved to Rochester, New York, when he was 11 years old.

He met his wife while earning a degree in history at the State University of New York at Brockport. They moved to her native Poland in 2001 and returned to Italy a year later to begin his apprenticeship as a shoemaker.

In 2005, they moved to Ireland but returned to Italy in 2006 to complete their training.

In 2009, an earthquake struck the Abruzzo region of Italy, killing more than 300 people. The quake also damaged or destroyed thousands of buildings, including Vasta's home and workshop.

“It was really horrific. There were firefighters from all over Europe, military vehicles. It was like a scene from a movie, it seemed,” he said.

A signed copy of the soundtrack to “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” sits next to a pair of Vasta shoes.

Speaking of movies, Agha met actors George Clooney and Bill Murray, who toured the refugee camp where the Vastas live. She even asked Clooney to sign her CD of his film, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Then I moved back to Rochester in 2011 and Vermont in 2018 before finding Eureka online.

“Pure coincidence, pure fate, you know, I guess,” said Vasta.

While his arrival in Eureka in 2021 was a coincidence, Vasta’s love of the American West is not. He said he grew up reading the Italian comic book series “Tex,” which follows the adventures of Texas Ranger Tex Wheeler.

“So the whole thing, the Westerns that were made in Italy, the whole cowboy culture. My father even had dreams of starting a ranch before we came to the United States. So we were kind of Italian cowboys.”

Learning and appreciating the culture of a region and its people is important in his work, Vasta said.

“I think you really have to love the culture to understand how to make a proper cowboy boot because of the…glamour that a lot of Western gear had…at the time.

“They really expressed that through their shoes, especially because there is a culture of dying in your shoes. So, I think you have to empathize in some way with that culture.”

Vasta says he has always loved shoes, and he loves working with his hands, just like his father did. Vasta shows the craftsmanship and detail in the first shoe he ever made.

Vasta said he has always loved shoes, and he also loves working with his hands, just like his father did. His father was a butcher, but Vasta said he considers himself an artist, skillfully using his knives to cut pieces of meat.

Making custom shoes or boots is also an artistic statement, both for the client and for himself, Vasta said.

“Shoes are an individual expression,” he said. “I think that’s probably the main reason why people spend the amount of money… that they need to spend on a pair of custom shoes. They want the shoes to reflect a part of their personality.”

“So, I listen to their opinions during the first consultation about what they want in terms of leather and design, and I incorporate it, and I put a little bit of myself in it. So, just like any other artistic object, the product comes out as a creative expression of its maker.”

The day we met, the window-mounted air conditioning unit was chugging loudly to combat the Kansas heat. The smell of exquisite leather filled the workshop.

Vasta was wearing a pair of luminous maroon shoes made entirely by him. He said these shoes are called whole because the upper of each shoe is made from a single piece of leather.

Like all the shoes and boots he makes, they are stamped on the bottom “fatto a mano” – handmade.

Vasta in front of this boot shop in Eureka, Kansas. Vasta says he grew up a huge fan of the American West. One of the reasons he wanted to move to Kansas was to work making cowboy boots.

When Vasta first arrived in Eureka, he spent his time fixing up his house and workshop. He helped pay the bills by repairing leather and making the hour-long commute to Wichita five days a week to work as an Uber driver.

“It provides the flexibility that also allows me to fix the house, fix the garage, and run the business,” he said of his Uber work.

The challenge now, he said, is finding customers willing to pay more than $1,000 for a pair of handmade cowboy boots. It takes 56 different steps and more than two weeks to make a pair, Vasta said.

“It’s a niche business, so you’re struggling to get customers who are buying the niche type of product,” Vasta said. “So you’re constantly looking for those customers.

Vasta's work also includes women's shoes and matching handbags. Vasta is wearing a pair of luminous burgundy, fully cut shoes that he made himself.

“Part of the trick in business is being able to network and be at gatherings and parties… with people who could be part of your clientele. So there’s always a balance between production and networking. So if you’re out networking, you’re not producing, and if you’re producing, you’re not networking.

“So, it's kind of a bit of a dilemma.”

Vasta said he has received inquiries from people about making the shoes. He hopes to launch a website soon to showcase his work, which also includes women's shoes with matching handbags.

Meanwhile, he said he will continue to pursue his passion that has taken him all over the world.

“There’s something wonderful about the whole process where you see something come to life, so to speak, that you had in mind in the beginning,” he said. “And then … you see the satisfaction and the happiness in the customers’ eyes, of course, when they receive something that reflects them, and they feel like it speaks to them when they wear it.

“I really like him.”

Copyright 2024 KMUW | NPR for the City of Wichita

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