Menswear
No brands that make men's shoes in Blaenau Gwent are listed yet.
No brands listed yet
We're still researching this subcategory and would love your help. If you run a British-made brand that belongs here, list your brand. If you know of one, please tell us about it so we can review and add it to the directory.
Perhaps there's a gap in the market. This could even be your opportunity to establish a new British label.
This independent directory lists UK-made clothing brands, and marks those that make only some items here.Why choose British-made?
Britain has a long shoemaking tradition. In London, the cordwainers, as makers of shoes from new leather were known, received their first ordinances in 1272 and a royal charter in 1439. Northampton had a guild of shoemakers by 1401. Northampton's rise owed much to military orders. In 1642 the town's shoemakers made 4,000 pairs of shoes and 600 pairs of boots for the army. By 1841 the census recorded 1,821 shoemakers in Northampton, and the county became one of the world's best-known centres of quality footwear. In the nineteenth century Northampton factories adopted Goodyear welting, a machine method developed in the United States in the 1860s by mechanics working for Charles Goodyear Jr. The welt is stitched to both the upper and the insole, and the outsole is then stitched to the welt, so the shoe can be resoled several times. The brogue grew from the bróg, a rough shoe worn in Ireland and Scotland. The oxford is often linked to Oxford students of the early 1800s, although its origin is uncertain. Contemporary British-made shoes carry on this heritage, combining traditional construction with modern refinements.