My first thought was – thank goodness he’s a bloke, since our offering of shoes made in England, or even the British Isles, in ladies’ is slender to say the least. We were able to show him a fair selection of shoes by Northamptonshire makers, who shall be nameless because this column is impartial and only mentions names when necessary or after the offer of a peerage or similar. The customer left beaming his satisfaction and we hope he is spreading the good word amongst his friends and relations.

His demand concentrated my mind on how little of our manufacturing industry is left. We all know the main reason - lower labour costs abroad. Some would aver that the quality, design or service offered by British shoe factories was inferior to their Italian competitors, but I remain to be convinced. We had, and still do have, some very high quality makers and if our designers are so secondrate, why are they selling their services all over the world?

What possibly did contribute to the decline of our industry was the growth of the multiples. Most British manufacturers ended up making for the big boys, not realising the trap they were falling into. The buyer was the one in the position of strength, playing off one supplier against another when it came to price, but possibly more important, the factories, by making shoes under names not their own, destroyed any brand loyalty they might have had.

To be fair, most of the factories’ brands were less than memorable and the back up consisted of an exciting annual ad in the Shoe and Leather News before the Autumn fair inviting "Our clientele, old and new, to inspect our ranges…." There were a few firms that looked after their brands, some of which are still with us, although importing most of what they sell, but the temptation, when times got tough and the factory was short of orders to get a big order at a marginal price to keep the wheels turning was too great, and most factories ended up tied to a small number of customers with whom they had a comfortable relationship. In the end that proved fatal for both parties since it bred complacency.

This showed itself on both sides. The buyers became lazy and in some cases corrupt. There was the famous case of the gentleman who gave a buyer a bribe and then complained to the buyer’s boss when he didn’t get the business. On the other side of the counter the entire buying team for a well-known multiple, in Bologna for MICAM, instead of combing the stands for sources that might give them a competitive edge, decided to spend a day in Florence looking at windows but got on the wrong train and were carried off to Rome. No doubt they had as good a time in Rome as they would have had in Florence, but they didn’t know where the exciting shops were in Rome, so came back late that night tired and emotional, but with few, if any, new ideas.

But all that is water under the bridge. The position now is that we have a few factories left, but those few are very good at what they do. They have learned that it is the marketing people who are in charge, because they are in touch with the customers, and the customer is king or queen, as the case may be. The rest of the shoes the British public puts on its feet come from far away.

Is this a bad thing or not? The commonly held notion is that we make nothing at all in this country, which is not entirely true. It is just getting harder to know where anything is made. Famous British names are owned abroad and British factories make under foreign brand names. Even if the product is labelled "Made in Britain" not all of it is made here and, thinking about it, never was. Back in the Middle Ages we imported leather from France and Spain, more recently a lot of our bottom stock was tanned from Indian hides. It has now got to the point that materials and components can come from almost anywhere. We used to sell a line of men’s moccasins whose uppers were imported stitched complete from India and the bottom units from Italy. I believe only the toe puffs and counters were locally sourced.. What I am sure about is they were made over English lasts because I saw them in the factory. I am pretty sure, too, that the "Made in England" bottom stamp was impressed here, but I would not put money on it.

A hundred years ago this would have been thought of as madness, and maybe shipping stuff across the planet is not entirely a sane way to be going on, especially from the environmental angle, but the world has changed and is still changing at a rate of knots. You can send a design across the planet on the internet, have it made up in a day or so, and get the sample on the buyer’s desk before the end of the week. The world has shrunk.

And without any help from government or any of the other bodies that exist to encourage, assist, hector and generally live off our efforts, we simple shoemongers have quietly adjusted to this brave new world.

And by way of a little light relief I pass on a useful marketing idea seen in a London shop window. "Special offer this week. Buy one shoe - get another free!" Now why didn’t I think of that?

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend