All these skills lost now

The Process of a Shoe

When The clicker foreman would go into the leather man to choose his leathers where he would then take them to the clicking room. He would have a pattern designed by the pattern cutter to help him chose the correct leather.

It would then go to the clickers who would cut it out either by a knife or press. After this it would all be tied up separately. It would then be coloured in different sizes. It would then go onto the skivers who would then skive them into the thickness/thinness that the closer needed.

Following on from this the pieces was stitched together into what was then called an upper. After this it was taken into the making room where the wooden lasts were fitted and the sole was attached to the upper- some were stitched whilst others were nailed on.
Mobbs & Lewis from Kettering did the lasts, which were made from solid wood. The shoe then goes onto the finishing room where heel trimming, heel scouring, edge trimming and inking of the sole were done. After this the edge of the sole was needed. There then followed the final detail works such as trimming of lose ends and then the shoes were put into cardboard boxes. If they were to be shipped abroad they would then go into shipping crates.

Hobby Boddington remembers when he first went into the shoe trade getting a pair of shoes for one shilling and sixpence and this was in the late thirties. Characters such as Marty Wilde got his shoes from a Finedon factory.