Workers shape valenki, traditional Russian felt boots, at Boris Smorodov’s tiny factory in Vyshny Volochek, about 200 miles northwest of Moscow. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
The workshop uses centuries-old methods to make the valenki. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
Owner Boris Smorodov found machine-made valenki too stiff for comfort, so he decided to make them by hand. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
A worker polishes a felt boot on Smorodov’s primitive equipment. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
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Factory owner Boris Smorodov cuts a pair of boots to size. He and his small team spent years driving around the countryside, looking for the very old people who knew how to make valenki.... Its a skill you cant buy. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
A worker embroiders flowers onto a boot. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
Factory worker Galina Antonova shows a pair of valenki to a truck driver who stopped in. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
Women take their lunch break at the factory. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
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Workers relax during a break. They work the wool by hand, plunging it into vats of greasy, steaming water before rolling and hammering it. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
A woman fetches water from a canal in Vyshny Volochek, a dilapidated town on the highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg. (Sergei L. Loiko / Los Angeles Times)
