By Jill Fennnema –

The 72nd Annual Dutch Festival is only a few days away! There are activities planned for all age groups. One unique event this year will be demonstrations by a former Edgerton native, Adrian Wolbrink.

Adrian, a retired orthopedic surgeon, will be demonstrating how to make traditional Dutch wooden shoes. He lived in Edgerton when he was a child, when his father was the pastor at the Edgerton First Reformed Church from 1946-1957. 

Adrian and his wife Fran live in Mason City, Iowa. Wooden shoemaking is a hobby that he enjoys and shows to others at various town festivals and fairs. He demonstrates every year at the Pella, Iowa, Tulip Festival, which is where his mother’s family came from. 

After nearly 40 years of working with his hands and tools to repair joints, ligaments, and tendons, he took up the hobby of wooden shoemaking. “I have always enjoyed woodworking,” he said.  He has enjoyed learning old techniques and working with hand tools as people have done historically. 

About 11 years ago, he saw an advertisement for someone selling the tools for making wooden shoes. The idea of making wooden shoes intrigued him, so he called the seller and asked if, in addition to selling him the tools, he would train him how to use them. 

The seller, who was about 87 years old at the time, thought that Adrian, at 70 years old, had enough good years left for making shoes, so he agreed. 

Adrian is one of the few wooden shoemakers who uses only hand tools to craft shoes. Many others use machines and electric tools. He likes to say that he does not like those machines, because when they came around, they put 12 of his buddies out of work.

There are other wooden shoemakers around, especially in areas like Pella and Orange City. But it is a lost craft and art, so Adrian enjoys showing people how it works. Traditionally, a shoemaker would have worked as an apprentice for a year before they could make shoes on their own.  And while a person can be easily trained to use the tools of the trade, it takes a long time to be able to make a pair of shoes that fit properly. 

To make a fully functional pair of wooden shoes takes many hours of work. A professional shoemaker could craft about six pair per day. For Adrian, the amount of time it takes to finish a pair depends on how much talking he does while he makes them!

Traditionally, Dutch wooden shoes were made from willow. When they ran out of willow, they used poplar. Poplar is a good choice because when it dries out it makes for a strong shoe. 

Adrian uses basswood for most of the shoes he makes. That’s a wood that carvers use a lot. But it is not the best for a long-lasting shoe. The shoes that he makes in his demonstrations are small and not really designed to be worn.

“The important thing is that the wood be green,” he said. “It carves easier when it is still wet.” 

One area that he talks about during his demonstration is the history of wooden shoes and why the Dutch wore them. A lot of the land in the Netherlands is below sea level and is damp. Wooden shoes could be worn outside in the barnyard or the field and would prevent the wearer from getting cold, wet feet. The shoes could be rinsed off at night and worn again the next day. Wooden shoes were also considerably less expensive than leather shoes.

According to national statistics, 20 years ago the Netherlands produced 3 million pair of wooden shoes per year, selling 2 million of them to the tourists. They are still very practical out in the garden and in the feed lot and there are plenty of people who still wear them. If you find yourself looking to buy a pair in the Netherlands, it’s a good idea to shop at a garden store rather than the tourist shop because that will save you some money.

Adrian and Fran will be in Edgerton on Friday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Adrian will demonstrate and talk about the art of wooden shoemaking near the windmill in the Edgerton city park.