In the store that made shoes for your favorite movies

The rickety floorboards creak as you climb the wooden stairs at 251 Sorauren Ave. Originally built in 1920 to manufacture piano keys and mechanisms, the factory space exudes an old-world charm – its brick facade and oversized industrial windows are instantly recognizable among the homes and independent shops of Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighborhood.

Inside the old factory, a bustle of activity can be heard in the workshops and studios. Light chatter, power tools and the sound of hammers hitting wood echo in the hallways.

It is here on the top floor of the four-story building where Jeff Churchill has worked for the past 15 years. The corner unit is unassuming on the outside; but inside, his bespoke shoemaker Jitterbug Boy Original Footwear is a bustling workshop.

The shelves are filled with rolls of colorful textiles and leather. Sturdy wooden desks populate the workplace. And some 3,000 shoe lasts, or models, dangle from above, adjoining colorful footwear brazenly pinned upside down, with the soles hanging from the ceiling.

Since starting the company some 18 years ago, Churchill and his team have made shoes for some of the biggest blockbuster movies, television, circus and theater productions, making Jitterbug Boy one of the most respected shoe manufacturers in the creative industry. has become.

Shows and movies like “WandaVision,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” the recent remake of “The Little Mermaid,” and the Broadway musical “Frozen” all got their shoes from Churchill’s shop, which has customers far and wide. circumference. the UK and Australia.

“The most rewarding aspect is probably the fact that we put Toronto on the map as a shoe destination,” says Churchill, looking back on his work. “There’s no reason the store should exist here since there’s no work in Toronto. But we were able to establish ourselves here and get a reputation big enough to send things all over the world, which is wild.

The theater artist turned shoemaker never saw himself in this industry as a young man. Churchill started working in theater as a teenager, doing everything from carpentry, welding, props, lighting and sound. His ultimate goal was to become a set and costume designer.

However, after about ten years of work, he realized that this field was not for him.

“In my late 20s I quit theater altogether and started working on a farm — very, very poor — and just trying to figure out what I was doing, because all I got to do was building was just not going to happen,” Churchill said at his shop. “I had no idea what I was doing with my life at the time.”

But a phone call in the late 1990s changed his career trajectory. It came from someone who set up a workshop in Toronto for Disney’s musical “The Lion King”, which premiered in the city in 2000.

They needed a cobbler and thought of Churchill. And although he had no experience making shoes, he took the job.

Churchill eventually worked on “The Lion King” and other shows presented by Mirvish Productions, such as “Mamma Mia”, before going to the Stratford Festival for several seasons.

“Eventually I realized that I liked making shoes and I was pretty good at it,” he said. “And it also took a lot of the skills I had from different aspects of my theater background — a little bit of costumes, a little bit of props, a little bit of metalwork, a little bit of carpentry, and a little bit combined. All in one medium, I found that fascinating .”

Since the start of Jitterbug Boy, Churchill has worked on an illustrious list of projects – from major franchises such as “Mission Impossible”, “Fast & Furious” and “Spider-Man” to circus shows and expensive Broadway musicals.

Looking around the workshop, his unconventional style of shoemaking is striking. You will not find traditional dress shoes here. Instead, there are superhero boots, dazzling high heels, and even ungulate footwear.

The reason Churchill takes on the more unconventional projects, he explained, is because he was never formally trained as a cobbler. He is largely self-taught and learns from mentors around him on the job.

“And as a result, I never necessarily look at things from a traditional perspective,” he added.

The other craftsmen who work at Jitterbug Boy also come from diverse backgrounds and bring an array of other artistic and creative skills.

Murphy Longley, who has been with Jitterbug Boy for four years, has previously done costume design for burlesque and drag. Others in the shop have previous experience in hat making, cosplay, and puppetry. Those rich skills help foster an environment of innovation and creativity in the workplace, Longley said.

“Jeff has always been very clear about that,” he added. “It won’t always be traditional shoemaking. Sometimes what we do is much closer to making props, but for your feet.

This kind of artistry attracted Churchill to make footwear especially for the art industry. Unlike many other cobblers, he is not interested in making custom products for corporate clients.

“Bankers, Wall Street people, corporate lawyers – those aren’t the people I want to create things for,” he said flatly. “I’ll make sure it’s for the costume designers, for the costume team. For me, it’s about collaborating with fellow creatives.”

Some of his most satisfying work has come from working with these creatives to create new designs that match their vision for a project, Churchill said.

Perhaps at the top of the list of most memorable projects was the collaboration with Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka on the 2012 fantasy comedy film ‘Mirror Mirror’.

Ishioka’s work on ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’, for which she won an Oscar for best costume design in 1992, inspired Churchill to pursue a career in design.

“This is a woman who inspired me, even though I didn’t stick to design all my life,” said Churchill. “It definitely influenced my shoe career as well, because I’ve always approached it from a designer’s perspective.”

Although “Mirror Mirror” received mixed reviews from critics, it was still a “massive project” for Churchill.

“It ended up being Eiko’s graduation project. She died a week before the movie hit theaters,” he said. “So it was literally my only chance to work for this woman who had such an impact on my life.”

These professional highlights are peppered throughout Churchill’s career. Another one: making shoes for Tom Waits, who appeared in the 2018 anthology film ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs’.

Churchill, a fan of Waits – the shop’s name, Jitterbug Boy, is taken from a song by Waits – asked the American musician to autograph a photo of Waits holding the boots Churchill had made. That photo still hangs on the back wall of the store.

These days, Jitterbug Boy isn’t as busy as he used to be. Previously, the team juggled 15 to 20 productions at the same time. Now they average around 10.

First, it was the pandemic that, like so many other art ventures, took a significant toll on Churchill’s business. Before COVID, about a quarter of his work would come from theater productions. However, that all dried up in the first few weeks of March 2020 and has yet to return. (Shrinking production budgets mean that many theatrical costume designers are no longer looking for custom products, he said.)

“Even though theater made up only 25 percent of our annual income, it was the regular stuff,” said Churchill, who noted that he often worked on long-running shows that frequently changed roles and required new footwear. “Film is much less stable. We get orders, we do it, we send it out, but it’s the same as fanning the fire. We have no idea how much work is coming in.”

And in recent weeks, output has also been affected by the ongoing writers’ strikewhich has put a question mark on several film and television productions.

So after 18 years, Churchill decided to close his business in September. He hopes to refocus his efforts and work with productions as an in-house cobbler, returning to a role he held at the start of his career.

“Especially in the last three years since the pandemic, I’ve had to spend so much time running the business,” said Churchill. “I would like to be a maker again.”

As the weeks draw closer when Jitterbug Boy ships his last pair of shoes, Churchill said it will be bittersweet to say goodbye, especially to his team, some of whom have worked with him for more than a decade.

But he says he’s ready to chart a course in a different direction.

“18 years is a good start,” he thought. “I have nothing to prove and we have reached the pinnacle.

“We could keep doing this for another 18 years, but it’s time.”

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