Bespoke trade had declined
steadily over the years. Boom-and-bust factory production of shoes became more streamlined with every
decade at the expense of shoemakers and the industry in Britain began
to rise
again in the 1950s
The force behind this latest peak was a
radical change in men's footwear, a change which this time would affect the repairing trade
Vulcanized rubber was created in the 19th Century,
but it was not until
the 1960s that its strength was unremittingly felt by shoe repairers everywhere
A revolutionary process of
all-in-one sole and heel moulding and vulcanizing gave ready-made shoe
production in Britain its mid-century boom and from
this process a giant was born
In the late 1950s Tuf shoes made
their debut. They were heavily promoted and became phenomenally
popular, not least because of their infrequent need for repair
With a no-repair guarantee against normal wear, titanic Tuf, along with the
inevitable cheaper imitations, caused the widespread demise of shoe
repairing businesses
Those that persevered had to, eventually, develop techniques for repairing
these moulded shoes, albeit a rare request
Fred's firm survived, but by
the end of the 1960s the workforce consisted of just Fred and family
In the mid-1970s most of Clarence Road was
compulsorily purchased to make way for flats and a car park and the workshop
was moved to Stoke Road. Before the move, shoes were ferried between
the two shops, for repairing at Clarence and collection at Stoke,
although there are customers who fondly remember taking their shoes into 14
Clarence Road
By the 1970s, sales of Tuf 'no-repair' shoes began to sink irretrievably
Britton's, the company that had revolutionised the shoe industry with its
creation could not compete with the cheaper imports
It was the beginning of the end for Tuf every-day shoes, but the name lived on and today is associated with safety workwear
