Sunlight pours across the century-old floorboards as a typewriter clicks out a personal note with each order. A rainbow of leather samples covers a brick wall. Charlie Parr croons through rubber-scented air.
This is the Lowertown St. Paul workshop of Ben Ransom, 34, a bearded, bespectacled, bullish bootmaker. His year-old business, Lanona Shoe Co., crafts American-made leather shoes the old-fashioned way.
We caught up with Ransom recently to talk shoes, the highs and lows of running a start-up and how his grandfather's advice influences his daily business.
Q: Where did the idea for Lanona come from?
A: After working in corporate settings since getting out of college, I decided I wanted to try something on my own. I had particular interest in the American-made movement and wanted to start a brand that could contribute to and benefit U.S. manufacturing. All I needed was a product.
Q: So why shoes?
A: I picked leather as a medium because of its lasting quality and how well it ages, then started researching. Fortunately, I met a shoemaker in Miami that had been making shoes — mostly in his garage — for 30 years. Then it just spiraled from there: hours of observing the shoemaking process, partnering with a design firm to hone in on the branding, learning the industry in more detail and testing designs that would eventually become the first Lanona shoes.
Q: What does Lanona mean?
