Resources

Books

Here are some of the books I've found useful over the years.

A stitch-down shoe before stitching the blue leather upper to the veg-tan leather sole with black thread

Prototyping a new design for house shoes, using two needles to stitch with a single thread, as I learned from Al Stohlman's book.

On foot health

Bowman, Katy (2016) Simple Steps to Foot Pain Relief Contains much information and advice to help diagnose and alleviate the causes of foot pain. I found some of the photographs and diagrams very useful. Note: the older edition of this book (2011) was titled Every Woman’s Guide to Foot Pain Relief. The New Science of Healthy Feet, but the information is not specific to women.
Porter, Kathleen (2013) Natural Posture for Pain-Free Living. The Practice of Mindful Alignment. Chapter 4 deals specifically with feet. Like other parts of the book, it contains amazing photographs.

On leather-working generally

Stohlman, Al (2013) The Art of Hand Sewing Leather. I referred to this a lot when teaching myself how to stitch leather by hand.
Michael, Valerie (1993) The Leatherworking Handbook. This introduced me to a variety of techniques not covered by Stohlman’s little book, and the chapter on leather demystified some of the rather arcane terminology.

On shoe-making

Vass, Lazlo and Molnar, Magda (2013) Handmade Shoes for Men. I loved the photographs in this book, and used them to work out how to attach uppers to soles using a welt.
Rogers, Harry (2022) Making Handmade Shoes: A Step-By-Step Guide. Well-illustrated, this goes through how to make traditional men's shoes that have welts, raised heels and shanks. The latter two characteristics don't interest me, and I had already taught myself how to welt well enough for my needs by the time this was published. But I think it could help anyone starting out who wants to review some basic techniques. Note that he also recommends using solvent-based glues at various stages, but I try to avoid using solvent-based glues at all, except when attaching a rubber outsole to the sole of the finished footwear.
Volken, Marquita (2014) Archaeological footwear: development of shoe patterns and styles from prehistory till [sic] the 1600’s [sic]. Based on a PhD thesis, this amazing synthesis of ancient patterns from north-west Europe made me realize how foot shape and the traits of leather constrain shoe design, so that the same basic patterns are reinvented century after century. This book focuses entirely on footwear made before machines and synthetic glues became widespread in the manufacturing process, so was of particular interest to me, given that I am trying to stitch everything by hand without using solvent-based glues.

Courses

Feet wearing mis-matched shoes. On the right foot, a blue leather slipper. On the left foot, an ankle-height multi-colored boot.

I made this multi-color chukka-style boot (on the right) during my Simple Shoemaking class. I later reworked both these shoes to make them bigger: my feet changed shape once I started wearing footwear with decent toe room!

Here are some shoe-making classes I have taken. I am not endorsing any of the companies or individuals, or any of the information / products / services they provide. I am listing them here in case it helps you do your own research.

Simple Shoemaking. Sharon Raymond was kind enough to share some of her easily-learned techniques with me during two fun days in early 2015. My first three pairs of shoes were made using her last-free "Lomoc" technique to attach soles to uppers
A class with Jason Horvatter. In late summer 2018, I spent a very intensive and fun 4-day stint in Portland, learning a new (to me) method of attaching uppers to soles, with Jason Horvatter. His ingenious internal stitchdown method allows the upper to be sewn to the underlying sole without a welt, or an external stitchdown seam. The trick is to use a McKay stitcher, which allows all stitching to be done through the sole, from the underside; just keep a finger or two inside the shoe to catch the internal thread onto the hook of the stitcher, and check the thread is pulled through correctly.
Jason Horvatter has also published two informative videos. I learned how to sew neat butt seams by watching his Scandinavian Turnshoe DVD, while his Boot DVD is an excellent summary of what we had covered during the in-person course (above).

Websites

Here are a few sites I’ve found helpful in letting me increase my understanding of what kinds of footwear are least bad for feet, and how to make one’s own:

Seen from below, a shoe nailed to a last, with a needle piercing both the veg-tan sole and the green leather upper (to which a black welt has been temporarily glued)

I taught myself how to use welts to attach uppers to soles, by looking at pictures in books. In this photo, I have just started to attach a double welt. But most of my welted shoes use single welts as I find they look more streamlined.

The Natural Footgear website's educational blog. Many useful articles, videos and illustrations about how common foot ills are caused by conventional footwear, and how to address them by transitioning to footwear that lets feet move more naturally. They also sell a variety of minimalist footwear and aids to foot health in their Shop section.
Correct Toes "Foot help" section. Correct Toes is a product that one can buy, to help remedy issues caused by poor footwear. Their website contains information on natural foot movement, as well as links to retail shoe companies that sell shoes they approve of.
Harvard University Skeletal Biology Lab outlines some of the scientific research on foot biomechanics and barefoot running.
These shoes are killing me: podcast and transcript from Freaknomics Radio, in which scientists and doctors are interviewed about the harms shoes cause to the human body. Interesting reference/reading list at the end of the transcript.
Barefoot Shoes: An episode of the BBC Radio4 program Sliced Bread, examining if if the scientific research into barefoot footwear backs up the marketing hype.
leatherworker.net: a moderated forum for people making all kinds of things out of leather, including footwear. For everyone from newbies to very experienced leatherworkers. Has a specific area for "Shoes, Boots, Sandals and Moccasins", as well as general sections on buying leather, sewing leather, sewing machines and other machinery, tools, etc. I have learned a great deal from reading threads here, and have found people typically very polite and informative when I ask questions.