In 1923 Jetzendorf, with around 570 inhabitants, was just a little village near the Freyberg Castle, surrounded by a few large farms. Most of the folks of Jetzendorf earned their living as day-labourers, woodworkers or brewers and worked up at the castle or in the local brewery. Down in the village, Johann Wagner ran his own small shoemaking business, working during the day and making music in the evenings. The brass and strings of the Wagner family were well known in the area! Johann Wagner´s sons, Lorenz, Hans and Adolf, worked with him. They would set out across the fields to the farmers, walking for several hours, with their tools and lasts in a rucksack and their cobblers stools strapped to their chests. At the farms, they would repair shoes or make simple footwear on the spot. The leather was provided by the farmers. Their working day lasted 11 to 12 hours, even on a Saturday.

Lorenz, Hans and Adolf Wagner took the time to look around other shoemakers´ workshops and learned all about "Zwienähen", the double-stitching method used up in the mountains. Even today, people still speak of the "Goiserer" shoe, a traditional design of shoe, which takes its name from the "Goisern" valley in the Tyrol. A shoemaker could manage to produce two pairs of such shoes in a day; later, the introduction of machinery meant that three pairs (without the heels) could be made. The machines were installed in the barn. The "Goiserer" was soon joined by the "Bayern" and "Allgauer” models as, step by step, LOWA began to grow. A room rented from the local tailor and the attic of the family home were pressed into service as workshops. The end of the 1920s saw the start of specialist labour - there were cutters and shapers, and workers responsible for soling, welting and sewing the footwear – the rest was done by machine.

In 1930/31 the first factory buildings were constructed, 15 metres long by 6 metres wide. The shoemakers were accommodated in the attic space, amongst them the apprentice Sepp Lederer. In the mornings he had to heat up the stove, prepare the water to soak the leather and clean the shoes belonging to the family of master craftsmen who were his employers. In those days one paid tuition fees for the privilege of obtaining an apprenticeship and places were not easy to find, especially in such a modern shoemakers´ business as LOWA.
It was the time of the world economic recession and it was possible to pick up machines at knock-down prices from shoemakers who had gone bust. Yet even so, certain acquisitions were only made possible by the extra income generated by the family’s music making – and they were all good musicians.