Author visit to the Church's Factory

We we're very honoured to be able to visit the world famous British shoe company, Church's yesterday and oh what a marvelous day it was. We got the train to Northampton, which is very rich in shoe history and where a lot of shoe factories are still based. Every Church's shoe is handmade and so so much work goes into each and every pair. 

Our training day began with tea's and a small introduction to the history of Church's. They are a 139 year old traditional shoe company who design and make the, lets say 'Mercedez' of the shoe world. Customers include Sir Elton John and the Royal Family...good enough for us then we'd say. 

After a small introduction we we're swiftly taken to the leather room, which pretty much says whats on the tin. A room full of leathers waiting their first inspection.

As the cream of the crop, Church's always always use first and second grade leathers which certainly show when you see the leather before its created into a piece of art work. We got taught a good piece of leather from a bad piece, they mainly use calf leather as its the softest and most supple for the shoes, and we we're made aware of what ensures quality and long lasting of the shoe. 

Then onto the clipping room, where the leathers are pressed in lets say a sort of pastry cutter, but for leather, into the shapes that are needed to create the shoes. So this lovely worker of Church's gave us a demonstration of how many different shapes leather you need for just one shoe. Six different shapes later and we have the beginnings of a shoe. If you look at the above picture, you can piece together just from the shapes how it will fit together. Eventually those leather bits, will turn into the photo below. AMAZING RIGHT? 

With 250 different processes applied to each shoe (yes thats right, 250!!!) the next step that we got to see what the detailing. So for instance, if a brogue was being made, the leathers would then go to a machine like the one below to add the decoration. 

After the decoration has taken place, we we're then shown, what I think is the most charming part of the shoe is this. In every single pair of shoes information is hand written, so you would have the style name and reference numbers all written by the lady below, for me, that is something extra special. 

The next step would be, baring in mind all traditional shoe making methods are still used to this day, would be the stitching of the shoe together. Taken with great care the machinists at the factory will stitch the shoe together and also do any decoration needed and from this point they are passed on to the steam room, where moisture is put back in the leathers for around 5/6 days. 

As you can see, the beginnings of a shoe is starting to form and from this point in construction its all about the sole of the shoe. The shoe is then put on its last, and goes through many many stages to create the perfect sole. 

As well as the upper of the shoe, the sole and heel are also completely made out of compressed leather, and inside the actual sole there are a cushion of tiny pieces of leather so act as support and as comfort. There is also a metal bridge inside the shoe designed to made the shoe more hardwearing. I seriously could spend forever writing about this, 250 different points to write might be a bit time consuming hehe, but im sure you get the gist from the photos on how much time is taken over this brand. 

From this point, the shoe is polished up and the leather is treated, taken through stock control and eventually ending up with this girl, packing each shoe carefully and beautiful Church's boxes. 

Et Voila, a very short story about a massive process! I probably don't even touch upon how extensive this is, three months of hard work to be exact. Yep thats right, every pair of shoes takes 3 months to make. So if you're lucky enough to already own a pair of church's treasure them, if you don't you have to get some. It's truly like owning a piece of art. 

We would also like to thank Church's for being so kind in showing us around and their hospitality, and not to mention the goody bags! THANK YOU, it was such a pleasure.