In 1979 shoemaker Georg Wessels became the owner of Wessels Shoes, a family business that makes footwear for the tallest people in the world, including World Record holder Sultan Kösen. He tells us about the unique nature of his work in providing free footwear for the world's most extraordinary people. (More about World's Tallest Man: Looking for Love)
My name is Georg Wessels and I am a 58-year-old shoemaker from Vreden, Germany. Since 1745 my family has made shoes in the exact same location, where Wessels Shoes - now in its eighth generation - is based today.
In 1975 my father and I decided to specialise in oversized shoes and since 1983 have made shoes for the tallest people in the world. Through this work we are now known worldwide as a provider for oversized shoes, and, as you would expect, this also helps our ordinary business, which sells oversized shoes that start at 8.5 (for women) and size 12 (for men) to customers from all over the world. You can even find us in the Guinness Book of World Records.
One of the first pairs of oversized shoes was made for Sandy Allen from America who was, at the time, the tallest woman in the world at 2.32m tall, with size 21 feet. Another of our first pairs went to Russia's Alexander 'Big Alex' Sizonenko, then the tallest man in the world standing at 2.42m, on size 25 feet. Matthew McGrory, who, with size 31 feet, holds the world record for the biggest feet in world, also got his footwear from Wessels Shoes. At the moment the tallest man in the world is Sultan Kösen from Turkey, who is measured by the Guinness Book of World Records with a body length of 2.48m and size 23 feet. The tallest woman in the world is currently Yao Defen from China. She measures 2.36m and wears a size 21 shoe.
Very soon [after specialising in oversized shoes] we realised that the tallest people, or, better said, 'giants', are extraordinary people, not only due to their outer appearance, but also their sentient being and marvellous character. Their unusual, morbid growth makes it impossible for them to have a normal life, or to earn their own money and pay for the necessarily large sizes of their clothing and furniture, as well as for their medicine and food. Moving around is so exhausting for these people that it prohibits them from doing a normal job. Most of these 'giants' come from underdeveloped countries and do not get any help from anywhere (they do not have any health insurance or the like).
This lack of help is the reason I decided to help these really poor people and to make shoes for the ten tallest people in the world for free. I fly all over the world to visit them and measure their feet so that we can make the perfect fitting shoes for them - something they cannot obtain anywhere else. This has resulted in deep friendships between me and the tallest people in the world. It makes me very happy to see my friends smile about the little help I can give to them with these big shoes, and I am very proud to be their friend.
