By Way2Jeff • April 6, 2025"On Stitchdown, I’m a founding member and principal evangelist of the Fourth Toe Mafia—recognizing that many of us shoe warriors don’t have a ziggurat-like taper to our toes, and for many of us (the best of us), our fourth toe isn’t much further down (foot-south) than our big toe.
What does that mean? It means even the lasts for the everyman—the Barrie, the Leo, the Kobayashi-Maru—don’t fit us, because they BITE onto our fourth toes (or middle toes or pinky toes, as the case may be).
And it’s not a question of width. Just adding VOLUME doesn’t fix it because we often don’t need the space in our ankles, insteps, waists, etc. We just need a better shape for our tootsies! But the real shape of a foot is anathema to many cordwainers because it’s not a pointy toed elf shoe that’s easy to market.
Enter, the King of Lasts. The White’s 9338 Swing last. A last so ugly that White’s and Baker’s will repeatedly try to talk you out of ordering it. ‘Cause baby: it’s a fat last. It’s startling. It’s a clown shoe. You mentally prepare yourself but when you see it in person your heart drops to the pit of your stomach.
But then you try it on. Your toes…can breathe. They can move. There’s no bite, no pressure cutting across them on the sides. And, incredibly, your foot isn’t slipping out of the heel, and the sides don’t touch across the vamp! How can it be?! Did someone actually make a last…shaped like a foot??
I love the Fightin ‘38. It has a huge, softly round, broad toe that is lovingly accommodating to your fourth toe and all adjacent environs. But even better: it has a snug heel, a low instep, a tight waist, and even a low volume toe box, vertically speaking. It’s somehow both freakishly forgiving in the toe box while also being a low volume last overall. Many take it in the E width. It’s also HUGE in Japan—there’s a whole White’s community over there and they love the Swing and 55.
I’m so glad I found the ‘38 and will definitely order it again. For the first time in forever, I have a boot that doesn’t bite my ring toe and also doesn’t eject my heel to the moon with every step. Fourth Toe Mafia out!..."Read the full review
