Chris, now out of university and unsure what the hell to do with his life, made the only logical decision: go into the family trade.Ĭhris’s arc started with learning the precise art of pattern-cutting-selecting and cutting specific pieces of hides best suited for different uses on different types of footwear-before getting schooled by masters on hand-lasting, hand-welting, and every other step of bespoke footwear construction. There’s a lock on the door.’”īut Andrew Woodford was undaunted-he had to keep making shoes, one way or another, and started another small operation that eventually began making hand-welted bespoke shoes. “My memories later in life are, ‘everything’s gone. All the department stores all went, ‘well actually we can get these cheaper anywhere else in the world.’ There’s a reason there are so many flats where there were once factories in Northampton. “At the time, it was a brilliant idea, upscaling everything into mass production without his own brand,” Chris said. “Pretty much my first ever memory is from when I was four, being surrounded by the constant repetitive clicking and tapping sounds from the industrial sewing machines and workers thinking: ‘this place is massive.’”īut it didn’t last. More than 250 craftspeople in three factories manufactured impressive amounts of handsewn moccasin-type shoes and boots for large British retailers like Marks & Spencer-and also all of Lonsdale’s boxing boots sold around the world.Īround that time, Chris Woodford, Earnest’s great-great-grandson, was trying not to get into TOO much trouble as a young child, running around his father’s factory. By the 1980s-now under the watch of Earnest’s great-grandson Andrew Woodford-it went the private label route. Bespoke shoes were Earnest’s game, and while the London clientele certainly offered a level of taste (and wallet size) that aligned with his aims, before long Earnest couldn’t resist the gravity of Northampton-England’s past and current cradle of quality shoemaking.Īs the decades and world wars passed, the Woodford operation grew. In 1908, Earnest Woodford & Sons was founded on South London’s Love Walk by (you guessed it) Earnest Woodford. I didn’t acquire a new pair of sneakers in a half-decade.īut wait all of a sudden I’m back wearing sneakers! Because Crown Northampton’s mad shoe-genius owner Chris Woodford made some out of Horween shell cordovan, Crown’s Harlestone Hand Stitch Derby- including my pair that you see above, in Color 4 shell ( which is available now as a limited-to-20-pairs MTO run).Īnd that rarest of upper leathers is honestly just a fraction of the story of these shoes: simple, beautiful sneakers built with the materials, techniques, and precision of some of the best welted footwear in the world.Ĭrown Northampton’s Unique, Winding History

I listened to a doctor for the first time in my adult life, and, well, here we are-telling the ever-important story of the wonderful world of welted footwear. The doc told me it was the sneakers’ fault-no support!-and urged me to get myself into a real pair of boots or shoes. Then I developed a stress fracture in my foot, and spent four months dragging a walking boot around the snowiest NYC winter in a decade. But with 70+ pairs of Nikes and Asics and New Balance and FEIT and OG Pumps and you-name-its filling up a 500sqft Manhattan apartment, I couldn’t have been mistaken for much else. I wasn’t the textbook Hypebeast chasing every drop, and I’ve never flipped a pair in my life. This piece was created in partnership with Crown Northampton, but that doesn’t really matter-Stitchdown would never publish a partner piece with a brand or product that we don’t believe in incredibly deeply.Īlmost a decade ago I was a sneakerhead.

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