About Earnest

Earnest : resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction

Hi I'm Dan and Earnest is a climbing shoe resole workshop and industrial design studio that focus' on soft goods.

I started Earnest goods in 2014 as a soft goods workshop. My intention with it was to explore how things are made and develop skill as a product designer. While doing that I worked as an apprentice with a few cobblers in the Edmonton area learning how to fix shoes and boots.

As that progressed, all be it slowly, I decided to take on a Millwright (Industrial Mechanic) apprenticeship to further my knowledge of mechanics and trades skills. Millwrights learn a little bit of everything including welding, machining, mechanics, electrical, hydraulics and heating/cooling. These skills have become invaluable as I find all sorts of old tools/machinery in various states of repair and sometimes need to build machinery for the shop. 

About 3 years ago I took a beginners to bouldering class at Rock Jungle boulders and loved it. It became a 3 day a week activity for me and quickly burned through a pair of shoes. Immediately I sought out local cobblers to see how I could resole them and found out that the closest place to me is Canmore. I knew I could do it myself and began the journey of finding out as much as I could about it via youtube and other resolers on Instagram. Slowly as word got around that I resoled climbing shoes I was approached by Rock Jungle to set up a drop off box for their customers. I made the decision to start up another side project and am looking forward to progressing it to a full time (or close to it) part of my life. 

Currently, I'm an active member in the Millwright and Machinery Erectors Union Local 1460 working in B.C on the LNG project. Once that wraps up I'll be back to doing resoles. Hopefully, January 2025

Dan Corbett