Northampton: The UK shoe firm trying to preserve 'gentle craft'

The UK's only shoe last manufacturer, which has made moulds for royalty and celebrities, said it had plans to take the "gentle craft forward" by training more people.

Spring Line, in Northampton, has counted King Charles, the late Queen and Idris Elba among its customers.

Founded in 1982, its products are used by many Northamptonshire shoemakers.

Sales director, Michael James, said: "I am aiming to leave Spring Line in a really healthy place."

Lasts - a word which comes from the old English "laest", meaning footprint - are moulds made approximately in the shape of a human foot used by shoemakers to make footwear and are a key element of one of the county's biggest exports.

"The last is first and it really is," Mr James said.

They not only give a shoe its shape but are essential for making them well-fitting and comfortable.

Founded by Ken Tipping and Bill Saunders, Spring Line currently has 22 employees and is based on the town's Moulton Park Industrial Estate.

It makes plastic lasts for mass production and wooden lasts - from beech or hornbeam - for bespoke designs and one-offs.

It said it is "proud" to supply shoemakers including Church's, Crockett and Jones, Jeffery West, Tricker's and Loake.

The firm also made a mould for former US basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, who has size 22 feet.

Mr James, who joined the company on a Youth Training Scheme (YTS) for two years in 1983 and then stayed on, said the craft "gets in your blood".

"You never know quite what you're going to do, every job is different, you're working with creative designers and developers," he said.

He said knowledge of the highly skilled craft is passed on from generation to generation.

"For us it is a craft and it always will be a craft - you've got to have a good eye and you've got to be fairly good with your hands, the technical stuff you can learn," he said.

"When you find the correct person this can be done.

"There is little written about last making, it really is an accumulation of knowledge built up over the years."

He said the company is always looking for younger people although they "have to space it out a bit for affordability".

It had been difficult finding them in the past couple of years but the company now has three to four new staff and "they are doing really well", he said.

"Once they are interested they will succeed, its a lovely craft and a good factory," he said.

His son, Sonny, said that teaching the younger generation a craft is "always a difficult task" but they had been lucky.

"We've got a lot of younger team and a lot of them have picked it up really, really quickly," he said.

Michael James added that he did not plan to be at the company for another 40 years but it would be left by him in an even better state than it is now.

"I will train more last makers to take this gentle craft forward," he said.

"I am aiming to leave Spring Line in a really healthy place.

"Northampton has a amazing footwear history and with the factories that are left, everyone is a luxury brand.

"I truly believe that as the years pass, products will be made closer to home, UK products for the UK... the cost of shipping goods around the world will only increase [so]... choose well and make it last."

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