THE CLARKS SHOP

It began with a flash of inspiration. It was 1825 in the Somerset village of Street and James Clark was busy working at the tannery owned by his brother, Cyrus. Among the sheepskin rugs, the off-cuts and cast-offs were piling up when James had a brainwave: “Slippers!”. And the rest, as they say, is history. A few stitches and a few years later, the sheepskin slipper was born. It was the very first Clarks shoe and the opening chapter in a remarkable story that continues to unfold to this day. In the decades that have passed since the young Mr. Clark’s eureka moment our shoes have seen social, political and economic revolution. They’ve seen fashions in footwear come and go, and come again – everything from court shoes and winklepickers to wedge heels, sandals and sneakers. They’ve tapped to the beat of crooners, rockers, Britpoppers and hip hoppers. They’ve walked, marched, strode and sashayed through an ever-changing world. Our feet, meanwhile, have stayed firmly rooted in Street.

It’s where Clarks started. It’s where our heart lies. And still, as always, we put that heart into every pair of our shoes to create stylish footwear that protects and cares for our customers’ feet. With more and more product to promote, Clarks began advertising – our first press ad appeared in 1936. We opened our own chain of shops called Peter Lord, a name which remained on the high street until the 1990s. We also introduced a choice of width fittings to our children’s range, not forgetting the first ever Clarks foot gauge – two innovations which became a benchmark in the care of growing feet. Before the 1900s were even half over, the world was plunged into two terrible wars. British industry stepped up to play its part in the war effort and during the Second World War the main Clarks factory was used to make torpedoes. On the home-front, meanwhile, the global conflict led to all sorts of shortages; raw materials became scarce, testing the ingenuity of manufacturers determined to meet the demand for everyday essentials. Clarks, for example, designed a unique, hinged wooden sole, so we could carry on supplying the nation with shoes even when leather was hard to come by. As the 90s became the noughties, the computer revolution that had started two decades earlier with the invention of the microprocessor continued to transform work and play. And it still does, with the worldwide web, uploading, downloading and emailing all very much a part of almost everyone’s daily routine. The dawn of the 1990s found Clarks facing some tough decisions. Major changes in world trade meant the company could no longer stay competitive while manufacturing in the UK. Reluctantly, production was moved to the continent. We began in a small way in Portugal, but it wasn’t enough. In the end, we had little choice but to close our UK factory doors and move the entire production process overseas. It was a change of location but our high standards remained, and remain to this day, the same.