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Local shoemakers bid farewell to Whistler

The couple behind Love Jules Leather has grown too big for their Alpine garage studio
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sole mates Josh Blodans and Jules Vagelatos have been quietly crafting leather shoes in their Alpine garage and selling them around the world on Etsy. Photo By darby magill, submitted

Three years ago Whistler residents Josh Blodans and Jules Vagelatos decided to take a leap.

Blodans, trained as an accountant, had just finished a contract for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Vagelatos had just run out of funding for self-employment training. Instead of returning to fall-back jobs, they decided to commit themselves full time to Love Jules Leather, a business they started out of their Alpine garage selling artisan leather pieces, mostly on the website Etsy.

"(Vagelatos) was like, 'Can I do this full time and sustain myself off my leather work?'" Blodans says. "I said, 'Well, I'll try and help you on the business side so you can focus on the creative side."

Vagelatos, who was born and raised in Whistler and was heavily involved in ski racing before moving away to attend the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, had mostly been crafting belts, fanny packs and other leather accessories until one day she decided on a whim to tear apart a pair of boat shoes and replicate the pattern. Using a laser, she carved pistols on the toes for some added flair.

"At the time we thought they were the coolest pair of shoes ever made," Blodans says. "We took a bunch of pictures and threw them on Facebook. It was like the air in the room changed. The response felt like we had stumbled upon something. Within the last six months, everything else fell by the wayside and we became a shoe company."

In the last two years, Vagelatos has handcrafted around 500 pairs of shoes and boots, improving leaps and bounds as she's gone along. Adding images of mountains, anchors or customized patterns, the shoes have mostly been purchased by international shoppers from major fashion cities like London, New York and Paris via Etsy.

"We've tried to evolve the designs as much as possible based on what speaks to us," Blodans says. "We try and travel as much as possible. We try and stay up to speed as much as possible. We try and bring our own style to it based on our west coast roots and Canadiana style and the whole handcrafted approach. We take our own spin on every design we do."

That includes leather that is sourced mostly from a distributor in Burnaby, but also from stores around North America. "We try to keep it as local as possible," he adds.

Recently, they decided, their 300 sq. ft. garage studio had begun to feel a little cramped. Although Blodans says they're just breaking even, they've had an influx of orders with a waiting list of up to three months. They've also received editorial coverage from various design and fashion magazines, as well as mention in a

Globe and Mail story last week about successful Canadian online sellers. (In that piece, their online sales last year were pinned between $60,000 and $120,000.)

"As things have gotten busier it's become tough," Blodans says. "We've lived in Whistler for the lifestyle. That's why Jules stuck around here. That's why I came out west (from Ontario). The whole self-employment thing was a means to live that balance and try and work our schedule around our ski addictions. But as things have become more and more busy because we live and work in the same space it's been hard to have that separation. Right now, it's full on. We're all day every day, seven days a week."

The pair looked in Squamish and Pemberton for new space, but when they found a work-live building in Vancouver's Chinatown up for rent for a reasonable rate (and 1,100 sq. ft.) they decided they would make the move June 1. The space will help them grow the business, Blodans says.

"Most of the money we make is going back into materials and it feels like we're working non-stop just to sustain," he says. "To really make this business make sense we've come to the conclusion that we have to make this a little more efficient. We need to acquire two or three pieces of machinery... even to be able to make two or three pieces a day instead of one would make all the difference in the world."

But before they move the couple is holding a garage sale with items that will be especially of interest to crafters and hobbyists. "We've got to purge everything from leather product that is sitting around to some tools that we don't use all that much anymore. Display stuff," he says.

There will also be vintage clothes and ski clothes. They plan to incorporate a good-bye barbecue into the sale to thank Whistler for being the catalyst to their growing business.

"We've had a huge amount of support," Blodans says. "We definitely want to say thanks. It's not been intentionally part of the marketing of what we do, but it really pulls at heartstrings to know the story of this couple who live in this picturesque mountain town. They're ski bums by day, but make shoes by candlelight. I think Whistler has been a huge reason as to why we've been able to get to this place because it is such a crazy story. If we were just another small fish in a big pond we probably would've never gotten as much support."

The garage sale is taking place June 2 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. at 8538 Buckhorn Place. You can also visit the Love Jules Leather website at www.lovejulesleather.com.



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