A Tour of Northampton

[Fordvalley]

Marvelous post ! It should be pinned.

 

[RJman]

Great post. Makes me want to go out and pull a portnoy (order entire EG catalog).

 

[jjl5000]

Marvellous!

This gets my vote for POST OF THE YEAR

Truely outstanding work Manton. I look forward to the rest of what has to be one of the most interesting posts in a very long time.

 

[Salsalocust]

From a Northamptonian........ absolutely stunning.

Thank you!

Regards,

Graham

 

[kolecho]

Superb! Thank you, sir.

 

[globetrotter]

fantastic, thanks

 

[bengal-stripe]

Not only is the article awesome, it's the speed of manton's writing.

I had met the man on Wednesday in London and know he was flying home on Thursday afternoon. So just some 24 hours after touching home base, the first instalment is finished and out on the web.

(It would have taken me weeks.)

Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to the other chapters.

 

[Eustace Tilley]

Wonderful write-up manton.

 

[designprofessor]

Only on SF would delaying the photos of shoe finishing be considered a"cliffhanger".

Very informative.

What were all the pictures behind the gentleman channeling the sole?

 

[Manton]

Originally Posted by Dmax

P.S. I think the white ridge you refer to is known as "the feather".

Originally Posted by lee_44106

I believe the "white ridge" is called the "feather".
I don't think so. I believe it had a different name, but I can't recall what it was. I asked Tony G. what the "feather" is and he said it was not so much a part but an area:

Originally Posted by DWFII

The "feather" would be the edge of the insole around the forepart especially when it has been channeled or otherwise prepared for inseaming.

Originally Posted by Holdfast

I worked in Northampton for a while at the local hospital on Cliftonville Road. I gather Edward Green have now moved close by?
On Cliftonville Road, across the street from a building that used to be a school and is now used as some sort of medical facility. Hillary said that medivac helicopters sometimes land on the lawn, and cause quite a ruckus.

Originally Posted by Fuuma

BTW does it mean they use crust leathers (object-dyed) for their black and dark brown shoes?
They use aniline for black, crust for everything else. I have seen crust black, however, and it is a very palid gray before the polish is applied.

Originally Posted by designprofessor

What were all the pictures behind the gentleman channeling the sole?
I think they were just pictures of various people wearing EG shoes and boots.

 

[von Rothbart]

Originally Posted by Manton

My first stop was Edward Green. The current factory is in a sort of suburban area, but within the Northampton town limits. The street it's on is mostly populated by car dealerships.

Anyway, Green moved into its current factory around 2002. Until then the early '90s, they had been at the same location forever, which is now the Lobb factory. The current facility is modern, large, light and airy. Apparently, it was built as a shoe factory in the '60s, then was converted to a factory that made maritime fire extinguishers, and EG converted it back into a shoe factory.

What a wonderful post!

Easily the post of the year.

I seem to remember EG factory was at another location (Chelsea Workshops) near a hospital after the JL factory (Westminster Works) but prior to the current one.

The first stop was the conference room. (Sysdoc, if you are reading this, I was authorized to take every photo that I took on this trip!)

I wish you didn't put the disclaimer in, unauthorized pictures of Northampton factory showrooms seem to be one way to flush him out.

 

[robin]

Originally Posted by von Rothbart

I wish you didn't put the disclaimer in, unauthorized pictures of Northampton factory showrooms seem to be one way to flush him out.
Without the disclaimer, it's also much more thrilling.

 

[Manton]

Originally Posted by von Rothbart

I seem to remember EG factory was at another location (Chelsea Workshops) near a hospital after the JL factory (Westminster Works) but prior to the current one.

Yes, there was an interim location, more toward the center of town, in a more traditional shoe factory. I drove by it, but it's no longer used as a factory. Many of the old factories are now lofts and such.

 

[daniele6]

Originally Posted by Manton

Yes, there was an interim location, more toward the center of town, in a more traditional shoe factory. I drove by it, but it's no longer used as a factory. Many of the old factories are now lofts and such.

Maybe you are talking about the Chelsea Workshops on Cowper Street....

 

[Manton]

My next stop was Alfred Sargent. It was interesting for two reasons. First, that is where Gaziano & Girling ready-to-wear shoes are made. A lot of people -- myself included -- were surprised to hear that, considering that Sargent is not really one of the top-tier factories, quality-wise, and G&G clearly makes a top quality shoe. Second, Sargent's story and ambitions fit well into the premise of the magazine article, but no point in dwelling on that now.

The Alfred Sargent factory is in Rushden, which is another town in Northamptonshire. Grenson is down the street. This is a defunct factory is across the street:

Inside those outer doors is a pair of doors with gorgeous Victorian stained glass windows. In hindsight, I wish I had gotten a picture.

A map of Rushden:

Alfred Sargent's certificate of incorporation:

OK, getting to the good stuff. As I said, G&G shoes are made in this factory, but not in the way you might think. They don't contract with AS to make the shoes. Rather, their own employees make the shoes, on a separate production line, inside the AS factory. Soon they will move the entire G&G production across the street. The space is now being used as storage:

Tony expects to be set up in there by next year. Not only will all the G&G RTW and MTO shoes be made there, but his bespoke workshop will be moved out of his home and into that space (it's much larger than the picture indicates). Also, they are going to set up a showroom and factory store.

As I go through the Sargent factory, I'm going to skip a lot of the things that were amply covered in the EG post.

Skins:

Hand clicking a G&G shoe:

Using the pneumatic press to click a Sargent shoe:

That thing operates with tremendous force. As a safety measure, it cannot be operated unless two hands are on those levers. Note also the black cookie cutter like thingies. Those are the patterns for the various leather panels.

An upper with significant hand-sewing:

Here is something I did not see at Green. This is a room where, after the uppers are closed, they are left hanging for about a month. The room is humidified and temperature controlled, to gently and slowly infuse the leather with steam. This softens it up and makes it take the last better. Tony said that other factories in town have switched to a different method, essentially blasting the leather with a huge burst of steam, to save time. I, however, did not witness this process anywhere. Tony said that the steam room is the more traditional way.

Another pic of one of those machinces that adds gimping and broguing. Note all the little circles of leather that have been punched out:

Most Sargent shoes are completely machine lasted:

That's actually a G&G shoe placed on the machine, to demonstrate the process. Pull that lever, and the machine lasts the shoe at a stroke.

However, G&G shoes are hand lasted. Tony says hand lasting is more precise than machine lasting, because the hand of an experience laster will know exactly where and by how much to pull, and can feel any over- or under-tension. The machine just does its thing, and may be a tad off here or there. Hand checking a slew of machine lasted shoes is more or less as time consuming as just lasting the shoe by hand in the first place.

See how he uses that clamp and lever to draw the waist tightly:

Hammering the nails:

The one exception to all this hand lasting is the toe. You can see that it is still a bit loose:

So into the special toe lasting machine it goes:

And voila:

One of the steps I did not get at Green, because my camera battery died, was welting. Here is the machine that built modern Northampton, the Goodyear welter:

A shoe, pre-welt:

That strip of leather running along the right is welting. The machine sews that to the canvas ridge.

And the result is a welted shoe:

Soles are put in much the same way, though the heels are built up by hand.

However, the true hallmark of a G&G shoe is the finishing of the sole, in particular the waist. This is Dave, the most important man at G&G (quoting Tony on that). He does the waists (among many other things). Dean used to do them all in the early days, but the production is too large for that now. Dave was lured away from Lobb, where he was responsible for the Prestige line.

Cutting that little notch between the heel and the sole that makes shoe nerds drool:

Carefully carving away as much excess leather as possible, to get the soles as close as possible:

Hammering to make it tight and dense:

Sanding what can't safely be cut:

Making that decorative ridge along the top of the welt. It's not just decorative; it also helps anchor the stitching.

And there you have it, the G&G waist:

Of course, when it is all properly painted and finished, it will look like this:

A different guy does the heels, and he gets them mighty close:

As an aside, here is a picture of a shoe before that ridging on the top of the welt is applied:

And a different shoe after it has been applied:

Shoes awaiting the final stages of their journey:

A G&G shoe, ready to ship:

Finally, a word about my other hosts on that tour. Paul and Andrew Sargent are terrfic guys, most generous with their time. The "problem" they have is that their brand is not well known because the company mostly makes for other customers who put their own name in the shoes. They have a huge range of clients, and make a wide variety of shoes, even Budapesters!

They want to start making more shoes under their name, especially a more up-market shoe. Tony is helping them develop it, and helping to train their workers to make a more refined shoe.

Here, for instance, is a typical Sargent sole:

And here is a prototype of the upgraded version. Tony and Paul swear it's going to get a lot better than this, but you can see the direction they are going:

More to come!