why are there so many cool companies in UK spezialised in custom repair work when the same companies are difficult or impossible to find in my city in Sweden.
The answer to this may be, that, once upon a time we were a prolific shoe manufacturing nation, and in my town, Northampton, and the surrounding area, there were shoe factories everywhere and half the population seemed employed in the shoe and leather industries. Where I live in town, within a quarter mile radius there still must be the remains of half a dozen factories. So many houses, rows and rows of terraced small houses, mine included, were built to house the factory workers. In July, the factories would shut for 2 weeks, so called "Factory Fortnight " and those that could afford it would all be off to the East Coast for 2 weeks by the sea.
So my Mum told me, my Gran was employed by Mulliners in town, sewing expensive seats for Bentleys, my Grandad worked at United Counties coaches in the upholstery section and my other Grandad was also a shoe factory worker somewhere in the town. Whole families were employed in the factories from the cradle to the grave. My Dad bucked the trend by becoming a printer and Mum was a machinist in a clothing factory. Walking home from school, I would look into Trueform's factory windows and see all the workers, and the noise and I decided then that I was not going into a shoe factory.
Leather dye, super strong glue, strong thread and even pieces of leather were always available if you "knew someone", as were cheap good quality shoes! Although as a child, ( of the 50's ), I seem to remember having cardboard glued into the bottom of my shoes when I had worn them through, just to make them last longer.
In latter years my next door neighbour would get me a small pot of black paste to touch up my leather bike jacket when it got too scuffed.You could get high on the smell of that stuff.
These huge factories are now all closed down, killed off by cheap imports from abroad and all that remains are the buildings and also some speciality shoe manufacturers ( read expensive ) who seem to survive by selling bespoke shoes at £200-300 a pair. ( Church's, Loakes, ) Dr Martens was manufactured in Rushden by Griggs, but they have now relocated to Poland and Thailand. Also remember the film / movie "Kinky Boots", that was shot in Northampton.
I seem to recall a range of products made by "Punch " for getting rid of scratches etc, this included a paste / dye for renovating leather products.
With any leather item, you have to remember that once it was a living item and leather needs feeding and conditioning to keep it supple and looking good. Hence my need to blag some repair paste for the jacket in the past. Also hence the need to spend time cleaning your leather seats properly and feeding the leather from time to time.
I recall on several episodes of " Wheeler Dealers " they would take awful looking leather seats to a specialist who would strip the leather colouring and re-dye them and make them look like new.
- Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe
Anyway enough of my ramblings ......
Steve.
