BRAND PACK 2020 “Grenson Is an Old Company with a Young Heart
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BRAND PACK 2020 “ Grenson is an old company with a young heart. We believe that craftsmanship and design go hand in hand” Tim Little, CEO & Creative Director Grenson was born in 1866 in Rushden, Northamptonshire. William Green, the founder, started making high quality shoes for London Gentlemen and was so successful that he soon had to build a factory and the company grew from there. Throughout the twentieth Century the company expanded, making a huge contribution to both war efforts along the way. By the Millennium however, like many British shoe companies, the business began to run out of steam. Recently Grenson has undergone a new lease of life, helped by their focus on quality and modern design whilst never losing sight of their impressive heritage. HERITAGE + BACKGROUND 1866 1939 - 1945 William Green begins making shoes in a loft above Once again the company is called into action to the Corn Merchants in Rushden, Northamptonshire. make shoes and boots for the soldiers in WWII. 1874 1950 William Green discovers the Goodyear Welted Hayden Green discovers moccasins in America. He method of shoemaking. visits India where the best hand-stitching skills are found to make a collection that gives the company 1895 a new lease of life during the post war depression. The business made the move to a state of the art new factory at Queen Street, Rushden. 1960 - 2005 Grenson creates many innovative products such as 1913 exotic skin shoes in the 60’s and 70’s, but eventually The business decided to move with the times by begins to decline due to the growing number of developing a “modern brand name” GRENSON is born. imports from the far east. 1914 - 1918 2005 Grenson serves its country by producing thousands Tim Little joins the company as Creative Director of boots and shoes for the soldiers of The Great War. with a brief to revitalise the brand. 2008 2015 The first ever Grenson shop is opened The first ever overseas shop is secured in New York. in Liverpool Street in London. 2016 2010 The Grenson 150th anniversary was The first Grenson Women’s collection marked by the “Archive Collection”. is launched for over 30 years. 2017 2012 Grenson opens its 6th store on London’s Jermyn Street. An apprenticeship scheme is started to bring new blood into the factory. 2018 Grenson launch new accessories, including its first 2013 signature fragrance called Grenson 66, a Watch The factory moves for the first time since collection and Dog accessories handmade in the Grenson William Green moved into Queen Street in 1895. factory. Showcased the Martin Parr images in Tokyo. 2014 2019 The iconic “Triple Welt” is launched. Grenson introduced The London Collection and continued projects with Craig Green. HOW WE MAKE OUR SHOES We have been making shoes continuously since 1866 All Grenson shoes are ‘Goodyear Welted’, a process and we are only in our third factory in all that time. invented in the 1800’s in England that is a time consuming way of making shoes, but means that Apart from our sneakers and our more recent sandal the product lasts longer than any other type of shoe. collection, all of our shoes are “Goodyear Welted”. It also means that the shoe can be re-soled many This is a shoemaking technique that was invented in times over making them a wonderful investment. the mid 1800’s and involves many individual processes, but the key benefit is that the shoesare strong and last There are four main departments connected with a long time. manufacturing within a footwear company and the components follow a progressive route through each The main feature of Goodyear Welted shoes is that of these departments to produce the finished shoes. the upper is stitched to a leather band called a Welt and this is then stitched to the sole. The departments are Clicking, Closing, Lasting/ Making, Finishing/ Shoe Room. From start to finish It takes up to 8 weeks to make our shoes and will take around 3 weeks to make a top quality involves well over 200 individual operations. Goodyear welted shoe. CLICKING CLOSING LASTING FINISHING CLICKING (OR CUTTING) DEPARTMENT LOSING (OR MACHINING) DEPARTMENT This is where they start to make the top part of the In this department the component pieces are sewn shoe, which we call the upper. The clicking operative together by highly skilled machinists to produce the is issued with a number of skins of leather, mostly completed upper. In the early stages the pieces are sewn from cows (although leather can be made from almost together on what are called flat machines. In the latter all animal skins) and with the use of metal strip knives stages the upper becomes three-dimensional and the he/shes cut out various shaped pieces that will machine used is called a post machine. This is where the eventually make up the upper. This is a very skilled sewing surface of the machine is elevated on a post to job because the leather is very expensive (the most enable the operative to sew the three dimensional upper. expensive available in the World) so waste must be They also complete various edge treatments to the kept to a minimum. Leather will have varying amounts leather to produce a more attractive look to the finished of aws on the surface such as barbed wire scratches upper. Also, at this stage the eyelets are inserted to and these need to be avoided so that they are not used accommodate the laces in the finished shoes. for the upper pieces.To interlock the irregular shaped pieces and avoid the surface aws, as well as keeping the waste to a minimum demands high skill levels. LASTING + MAKING DEPARTMENT FINISHING / SHOEROOM The completed uppers now need to be moulded into The sole edge and heel are then trimmed and buffed a foot shape and for this purpose we use what is to give them a smooth finish. They are then stained, called a last. This is a plastic shape that simulates the polished and waxed to give them an attractive finish foot shape which, when removed from the finished shoe and to ensure the edge is water resistant. The bottom can be used continually to produce more shoes. The of the sole is often lightly buffed, stained and polished first operation is to attach what is called an insole to and various types of patterns are marked on the surface the bottom of the last but this must be only a temporary to give it a craft finished look. We now have a “finished” attachment to allow the last to be removed at the end shoe and we now need to shoeroom the uppers. Firstly of the process. In a Goodyear welted shoe the insole will an internal sock is fitted into shoe which can be full, half have what is known as a rib attached to its under edge. or quarter and these will usually have the manufacturer’s The upper is stretched and moulded over the last and details or a brand name if applicable. Again, depending attached to the insole rib. When this is complete you on the material used for the uppers they will be cleaned, now have what is known a “lasted shoe.” polished and sprayed, plus laces and any tags that may be attached to the shoes (such as shoe care instructions). The shoe is then left to “sit” on the last for up to a The shoes will then go on to be boxed and packaged ready week so that the leather upper has time to mould to for dispatching to the customer. The Goodyear welted the shape of the last; this means that the shoe will keep process is mostly used for mens high-class footwear and its shape for many years. is almost exclusively produced in Northamptonshire as far as UK manufacture is concerned. A strip of leather called the welt is sewn onto the shoe through the rib and upper and all the surplus material is trimmed off the seam. The sole is then attached to the welt and the two are stitched together. After this the heel is attached which completes the making of the shoe. COLLECTIONS G:ZERO Made entirely in the Grenson factory from ‘skin to box’, this is the ultimate in shoemaking. Leather soles are ‘closed channel’, (hiding the stitches from view), and are made from chestnut bark tanned hides; uppers are the finest French and Italian calf; suedes are Steads’ English suede and the shoes are all lined with the same beautiful calf leather as the upper. Shoe details are handwritten on the lining and there are many tiny shoemaking details on the shoes that would not be cost effective on a lesser product. G:ONE Made entirely in the Grenson factory from ‘skin to box’, these shoes are made the old-fashioned way from cutting and closing the uppers, to lasting, making and finishing. They are made from extremely high quality burnishing leathers, fully lined with classic lining leathers, and soled with high quality sole leather from the best tanneries. This specification is a classic from one of the handful of quality British shoemakers still left. G:TWO In order to make our shoes accessible to people who want to wear them, but don’t feel the need for the incredibly high levels of specification in G:ZERO and G:ONE, we developed the G:TWO spec. Designed by us in our studio, lasts developed in Northamptonshire by us, patterns developed by our pattern makers, leathers sourced by our leather buyer, prototypes made in our factory to final sign off and then taken to our partner, a beautiful handmade factory in India, where they are made and shipped back to us for inspection and final polishing where required.