You don’t get more traditional a business than Grenson. It has been producing footwear since 1874, and its oldest employee is 73. Besides George Clooney, its fans include Pharrell, Eddie Redmayne and the editor of Vogue, Alexandra Shulman. (It started doing women’s footwear in 2011.) Originally called William Green & Son — the name was shortened to Grenson in 1913 — the company provided shoes for the allied armies in the Second World War. In 1974, it was commissioned to make brogues for the original film version of The Great Gatsby. Today, it employs 80 people, who produce 12,000 pairs of shoes a year, using 40,000 sq ft of leather. We took a peek inside its Rushden factory to follow the intricate production process, from cutting the leather, or clicking, named after the sound of knives on the cutting table, to lasting, when the shoes are left to rest on a foot-shaped block.
A Kevin Hemmington, 52, who joined in 1998, developed the triple welt style two years ago, creating a stepped effect where the leather is stitched to the sole.
B The heel trimmer removes excess leather from around the heel. The silver pipe extracts dust.
C The grey machine sharpens the blade for the heel trimmer.
D The master pattern-maker Roger Tuffnail, 73, has worked for the company for more than 30 years. Here he is binding cutting patterns ready for the clicking room.
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E A clicking desk from the 1960s repurposed for pattern-cutting. It was brought from the old Victorian factory, built in 1895, when Grenson moved into its new home three years ago.
F Keith Moore, 56, is a “rough rounder”, the shoemaking term for a craftsman who gets the sole ready to be stitched.
G Malcolm Lloyd, 50, is trimming the edges of the soles to make them smooth.
H The pattern-cutting area. The leather for the shoes comes from Germany, France and Italy (the British tanning industry having all but died out).
I The extraction system takes away fumes from the workbenches. The main factory space is 19,350 sq ft — a quarter of a football pitch — with a 26ft- high ceiling. The temperature is kept at 18.5C.
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J The boxing area, where shoes are packaged ready to go to the warehouse, before being shipped around the world.
There are 200 separate stages involved in making a Grenson shoe.
It takes 2 week to make each pair, including time for the shoes to rest on the last and take the proper shape.