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Hasip Erçetin is a virtuoso of shoemaking, a master who has spent 62 years of his life practicing this profession. He began by making çarık (sandals) and yemeni (flat shoes) and in the course of time also attracted customers from as far away as Japan and Germany. Erçetin, who for the last eight years has been sharing his experiences with young people attending courses at the Istanbul Chamber of Shoemakers, is also writing four books, three of which contain technical information and one his memoirs. Hasip Erçetin is in love with his profession, which he embarked on alongside his father when he was seven years old, and which he has been practicing since he was 12. Now 75 years old, Master Hasip says, “I was born as a shoemaker,” to explain his love for shoemaking, which was both his father’s and mother’s profession. Besides his father’s shop, in the beginning he worked as an apprentice with foremen who had come to Istanbul from Bolu “at the time of sultans,” in his own words. Because he has been practicing this profession since he was very little, he has also produced traditional type shoes such as yemeni and çarık, which are no longer made. When he was only 16 years old, one of the master shoemakers who came from Istanbul told him that he was good at this job, so he set off for the city. His first stop was at Küçükpazar, an old district of Istanbul; and then, in 1952 he moved to the Çatal Workshop Inn in Beyazıt, about which he says, “It was like a university for shoemakers; a shoemaker who didn’t come from there was not acceptable.” Following a period of eight years when he received training from the masters of Çatal Han, he decided in 1960 to become his own boss and thus began his days at the Güney Inn. But establishing his own business wasn’t that easy of course. “Achieving expertise was easy then. Shopkeepers used to appreciate honest people. We knew everybody from the days as master tradesmen, so everybody trusted each other. I had no capital. There was an Ismail Bey at the Sümer store in Beyoğlu, he helped me and we purchased the raw materials.” In 1964 Master Hasip moved to Beyoğlu, to the Marmara Inn on Kurabiye Street. The number of people he employed gradually increased and at one point even reached 80. In 1974 Master Hasip’s trips abroad, to Italy, began. He wanted to see how things were done there, so he consulted with his Italian colleagues and made friends with them.
The boots of the Kazakh ceremonial battalion are made by Master Hasip
Because of the increase in demand in the 1980s and the time required by craftsmanship, production was not able to meet the demand. But since then Master Hasip has made shoes and sold them to many countries; such as Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and Kazakhstan. He describes the four years when he produced shoes for a company in Japan: “They had heard of me. They ordered shoes from me. A short while later a large group came to check on me, to see how I was working. That was the first and last time they came; they never returned. The reason we ceased working together at the end of the four-year period was that we were no longer able to meet their demands. They asked me to set up a factory, but I didn’t want to.” The boots that were made to be sold in Kazakhstan is a sad memory for Master Hasip. “They sought me out so that I could make tall boots for the ceremonial battalion in Kazakhstan. This was in 1994. Apparently there was an Armenian craftsman in Russia whom they had attempted—but failed--to reach. The job had to be completed in time for a ceremony scheduled to be held at the end of October, 1995. But that year, at the beginning of October, my wife died. So the order wasn’t going to be completed in time. A friend of mine suggested that we produce part of the order on machines. But they had asked that the order be hand-made, and I had given them my word. We checked with Kazakhstan and they accepted, because it was important that the order be completed in time for the ceremony. So we completed the order on time.” The skilled author of untitled books Master Hasip, who believes that the sound transfer of knowledge from generation to generation is problematic in Turkey, decided to write four books on shoemaking in order pass on his knowledge. Three of the books are technical books for the profession; one deals with models, one with production and one with tools. “What I have read on these subjects was generally from books that were compiled. On my friends’ insistence, I began to work on these books with the aim of filling this void.” His fourth book contains the experiences he has acquired in this profession. The books are as yet untitled. In 2001 Master Hasip handed over the workshop to his son; since then he has been sharing his experiences with young people in classrooms of only nine students, at the Istanbul Chamber of Shoemakers. “When classrooms are crowded it’s difficult both to learn and to teach,” says Master Hasip, defining shoemaking, which he practiced enthusiastically for 63 years, as a profession where manual skill, an aesthetic understanding and taste need to coexist.
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* Apart from shoes I also make wrist supporters for bikers and special boots for riders. I suggest that my young colleagues steer towards different areas of this kind.
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