If you're anything like the average British man,
then you own nine pairs of shoes.
And the average British woman?
17 pairs!
We love our shoes.
But have you ever considered
what it takes to make a pair of shoes from scratch?
We've come to this remote stretch of the Cumbrian coast to find out.
This is the largest sport shoe factory in the UK and...
they've let us inside.
'I'm Gregg Wallace.'
I made this shoe right from the very beginning.
'And tonight I'm going to show you how this factory
'produces over 3,500 pairs of trainers every single day.'
Heel first, upside down.
Whoa! Whoaaaa! Goodbye, shoe.
'They will get through over 140 miles of cotton thread.'
Yes!
'And sew over 32 million individual stitches.'
I broke it.
'I'll be making my very own pair of trainers on a human production line
'where mistakes can be costly.'
How many shoes behind are we now?
About 40. Useless!
'I'm Cherry Healy and I'll help one of the country's
'largest leather tanneries process thousands of hides
'for the nation's shoes.'
Watch out! Coming in!
'And see how one company painstakingly
'turns 37,000 square metres of satin
'into 250,000 ballet shoes every year,
'some of which will only last for one performance.'
And historian Ruth Goodman traces the surprising origins
of the humble trainer to the back streets of Bolton.
Reebok? Reebok is British?
1.4 million shoes come out of this factory every year,
heading to shoe shops all over the world.
Tonight, we'll show you the painstaking work
that goes into every single one.
Welcome to Inside The Factory.
This is the New Balance trainer factory in Flimby, Cumbria,
on the edge of the Lake District.
When they opened their first factory in 1982,
they had a reputation for making a performance running shoe.
Today, they are also known for producing
a fashionable and colourful range of trainer.
This 6,000 square metre factory
has 279 people working hard to meet global demand.
Tonight, I'm going to show you how, in just 24 hours,
they can make 3,500 pairs of shoes.
They make here over 30 different styles.
This is one of their biggest sellers
and it goes through 35 different pairs of hands.
Well, I want to make that 36 pairs of hands.
This is the 576 classic leather trainer.
They've be making it for nearly 30 years, longer than any other model.
It's made from 27 individual pieces
that all fit together in a specific order
to form the upper, heel, toe and sole.
And I've got the mammoth challenge
of learning how to fit them all together
to make my very own pair of shoes.
My journey starts here, in Material Intake.
This is where they keep all the raw materials for shoemaking,
from leather to polyester.
I'm with quality controller Jim Fox,
collecting everything I'll need to make my shoes.
We are starting with foam for the shoe's padding.
OK, Gregg, so we are going to pick up the foam.
Just rip off one bit? No, we need the full, what we call the block...
All of this? All of that. Don't be mad, Jim! It's very light.
'This sheet will make over 300 trainers.
And just 35 minutes from now,
'this foam will form just one part of my finished shoe.'
We are then going to pick up the toe puff material.
A bit of toe puff.
'Next up is 3-mil black polyester,
'one of eight different textiles we'll need.'
Now, this is cut precisely, so handle it with care. Yes.
'Incredibly, each year the factory gets through
'enough synthetic material to cover more than six football pitches.'
We'll load that onto here. For crying out loud!
Modern synthetic materials are key
to making many of our modern trainers.
However, the majority of our shoes are made from a material
that we've used for thousands of years.
Leather.
New Balance get their leather from Pittards' tannery in Somerset.
Every pair of leather shoes you've ever worn started life...
like this.
Rawhide.
# Rollin', rollin, rollin' Though the streams are swollen... #
The hides they use here are a by-product of the beef industry
and almost all of them come from the UK.
They are treated off-site using chromium sulphate,
a chemical that stabilises the protein of the skin
to stop it rotting. After that, they are sent here for processing.
Inside each of these huge steel drums are 200 hides.
They are mixed with dye
and a top-secret blend of chemicals
that colour and condition the leather.
They might look like giant washing machines,
but inside these drums is some fairly complex science.
Everything about the leather on your trainers - the precise colour,
the durability, how waterproof they are,
even how flexible they are when you walk -
comes down to the 24 hours they spend in these drums.
'Now they've been coloured and conditioned,
'the hides need to be processed,
'so I'm taking to the tannery floor
'to join leather operative Paul.'
Hello, I'm geared up and ready to work.
What happens next?
We have to physically put the skins onto that horse.
Oh, it weighs a tonne!
That's a light one? That's really light.
That weighs a tonne!
OK, watch out, coming in.
'Hides are natural products, so it varies in thickness,
'particularly at the rump and the neck.'
Wow!
'But this machine uses super-sharp blades
'to shave it down to a consistent 1.5 millimetre throughout.'
Come with me.
Whoa!
'Now an even thickness...'
Wow!
Wayhey!
'The leather gets treated with polyurethane to help it wear well,
'along with a final touch of colour.
'Sales director Mike Dodd is showing me
'the spraying machine that does it.'
This is the finishing operation. OK.
We spray the top of the leather to give it its final colour
and give it those final protective coats.
There's also a level of scuff resistance
that gives us the confidence
that this is going to make a nice piece of robust footwear.
Here we go.
Wayhey!
Oh, it's beautiful! OK, watch your head behind you.
Get it on the pole.
And this is where we earn our corn.
Whoa!
Got it, got it, got it.
'The finished leather spends an hour drying on the sky train
'before it's finally checked over and graded.'
There's no substitute for a visual inspection
of where the scratches are, where the scars are,
where there is damage on the hide.
And this is classic for British cattle - scratches from barbed wire.
As long as we get barbed wire in the UK
and the cattle occasionally get an itchy bum,
so we have to account for that in the grading.
Someone had a very scratchy bum.
'Scratches will show on a finished shoe,
'but, provided there aren't too many,
'the shoemakers can work around them.
'So, this leather makes the grade and it's ready for packing.'
There's over 50,000 square feet of leather
coming through this factory every day.
It's been sent all over the world,
but this is on its way to the Cumbrian coast,
where its journey to become a pair of trainers is just getting started.
'Back at the factory in Flimby,
'I've spent the last four minutes collecting the raw materials
'for my shoes. And now I'm ready for the latest delivery of leather.'
Whoa! Whoa!
Lovely! Thank you very much.
Oh, that is very attractive.
'The leather from Somerset will be used
'for 91% of the exterior of my trainer.'
The 279 workers in this factory
are split into six uniquely named teams -
Greta, Derwent, United, Ellen, Indians and Solway.
They are all capable of making any one
of the company's 30 trainer designs
and are assigned a different shoe to work on each day.
With 495 years between them,
Team Solway have the most experience
and they are going to help me make my leather trainer.
I'll join their tightly run factory line
as the raw materials pass through eight individual processes,
from embroidery to sole fitting,
as we try to hit our daily target of 444 pairs of shoes.
First stop, Cutting.
This shoe has eight unique leather shapes
and chief cutter Billy Edgar is the man to show me how you make them.
Billy, I'm Gregg.
Pleased to meet you.
You are master leather cutter?
Yeah, but you are coming into my kitchen today,
so let's have a pinny on, please.
All right. All right.
Well, that's not a bad bit of kit, that, Billy.
I've been doing this job since I left school in '66.
You've been doing this since 1966?
England won the World Cup, Billy started cutting leather.
'By carefully choosing where he places the templates,
'Billy can get eight pairs of shoes
'out of one piece of leather with hardly any wastage,
'known as the skeleton.'
I want you to be cutting like this.
That's your skeleton.
Ann Summers charges about a tenner each for them.
I'll never do it. You will. I won't!
'The skeleton offcut is thrown away, so every cut has to count.'
Whoa, you are right on the edge. That's all right, don't worry.
You just want it to come away like that.
You can do that, can't you? I think I can.
'Time for me to have a go.'
All right, we're all right.
Yeah? Yeah, go for it.
'And it's harder than it looks.'
Oh, Billy, look at that! Yes!
'Billy would have cut out 23 pieces
in the time it's taken me to cut out four,
'and I've wasted a lot of leather.'
My skeleton is a lot fatter than yours.
'If I cut leather like that all year,
'I'd cost the company nearly £500,000 in wasted material.'
That's been my favourite bit so far.
Have a good day. Cheers, Bill.
You all right, darling?
'I've cut my leather,
'now I need the synthetic parts for my shoe.'
Flip over like that...
One machine cuts the black polyester six sheets at a time.
Another cuts the foam.
And, together, they will form the soft cushioning in my trainer.
I've now got all the parts I'll need to assemble my shoe.
These shoes are what the industry knows as lifestyle shoes.
They share a lot of the same design and technology
as high-performance running shoes,
but they're basically a fashion item.
So, when were they invented and why?
Historian Ruth Goodman is finding out.
The cobbled streets of Bolton may seem like an unlikely birthplace
for the global phenomenon that is the trainer.
But David Foster's family believe they kicked off the whole thing.
The guy that started it all, really, is my great-grandfather,
pictured here, Joe Foster.
And he invented his running spike back in 1895
above his father's sweet shop, here in Bolton.
'Incredibly, runners would run in their regular leather shoes
'before Joe Foster's invention.
'But he wanted to give runners better traction on the track
'and turned to the hobnailed cricket boots for inspiration.'
So he took this concept and refined it and came up with this shoe.
You can see the studs have grown into ginormous spikes,
which give you much better traction on a cinder track.
I tell you what this reminds me of.
It looks just like a ballet shoe.
It's actually constructed in exactly the same way.
A ballet shoe with spikes!
As far as an athletic shoe is concerned, I mean,
this was quite revolutionary.
Certainly was. This just changed the whole face of running.
In 1904, Alf Shrubb broke three different distance world records
in a single race wearing Foster's running pumps.
Overnight, Joe Foster's shoes became world-famous,
but the best was yet to come.
In 1924, two British stars, Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell,
both took to the track at the Paris Olympics,
the Games made famous by the film Chariots Of Fire.
MUSIC: Chariots of Fire by Vangelis
Liddell won gold in the 400m
and Abrahams was victorious in the 100m sprint,
both wearing Foster & Sons running spikes.
The company went from strength to strength,
producing a range of sports shoes.
But in 1958, feeling they had outgrown the family business,
'two of the Foster sons split off to form a brand-new company.'
My father and uncle, they had just had enough
and they decided they were going to go their own way.
So they upped sticks and moved from Bolton to Bury
and founded Reebok. Reebok?
Yes. My dad had won a South African dictionary
in a local race. What a bizarre thing to win!
They looked through this dictionary and they came up with Reebok,
a South African gazelle.
What did they do with this new firm?
Literally, they took the Foster's tradition
and then span it out using new materials and new technologies.
I started working for my dad in 1983,
just as we began to get into a newfangled fitness sport in the US
called aerobics.
And at that point, Reebok just went mental.
Women powered the demand for the new freestyle trainers
used in gym classes.
Reebok sales ballooned from 1 million in 1980
to 1 billion in 1986.
Young girls started to wear this on the street.
So, all of a sudden, we got into colour
and we became a fashion brand.
It was an incredible time
and I was very proud to be part of it.
'Today, Reebok is owned by Adidas.
'But it's the retro '80s inspired Reebok Classic range
'that remains the biggest seller.'
Today this little Union Jack is a reminder of 18-year-old Joe Foster,
who pioneered the running pump more than 100 years ago,
working over his father's sweet shop in Bolton.
Back at the factory,
I'm 13 minutes into making my very own pair of leather sports shoes.
So far, I've cut the parts I'll need to assemble the shoe.
Now it's time to start putting them all together,
so I'm heading to Pre-Fit to meet Joanne Murphy.
Joanne, I've got to bring some bits to you.
What do you do here? I do the tips and the foxings.
What, and add bits to it? Yes.
Would you do that for me? Yes.
The tips and foxings are the pieces of leather
covering the toe and heel of the shoe.
These parts get put under a lot of stress
by the wearer's foot,
so they need to be strengthened.
You're putting the reinforced plastic bits in, aren't you? Yeah.
Is it heat that sticks them?
Yes, it's heat. Heat will stick that down
and it will come out quite hot.
This is a lot like baking.
Ah, yeah! SHE LAUGHS
I've heard this is called skiving.
That's skiving. That's called skiving.
What's that bit? I'll show you.
That's my sort of job, that is.
'Skiving is actually an old English shoemaking term for shaving leather.
'By making it thin around the edges,
'they can bend the leather around the form of the toe more easily.'
I need to take a light layer off the top.
You're, like, giving it a shave.
Yes. Can I take these bits, Joanne?
Yes, you can.
Thank you. Okeydoke, bye.
Now my leather has been reinforced with plastic,
I'm heading to Embroidery.
This is where a design gets stitched into the back of my shoe.
This industrial sewing machine can embroider up to 15 pieces at a time
and it's overseen by Jackie Hebson.
Jackie!
What's going in here, a Union Jack?
Yeah.
'Despite their small size,
'it will take 21 metres of cotton and 3,300 stitches
'to sew each tiny flag.'
Does it sound like a machine gun to you? Yes!
Why has it stopped? Cos two lights are flashing.
So the cottons have jumped out,
so we would have to thread it up.
I'm not going anywhere near that needle.
It won't come down. It will! It won't.
'The machine might be hi-tech,
'but it still takes a human's hand-eye eye coordination
'to re-thread the needle.'
Pull it down. This is precision engineering.
Yes! Yes!
I'll start it.
We did it. Yep.
Proper job! I love these.
I'm finally ready to assemble the different parts of my shoe,
so I'm heading to Auto-Stitch.
This is where I'll make the top part of my shoe, called the upper.
It's made from parts that vary in strength,
thickness and texture to form the finished design.
'It's Susan Brown's job to place the different parts of the shoe
'on a template in the correct order
'before a machine automatically stitches them together.'
Can you lay that stuff down in the speed that that takes to stitch?
Yes. That's about ten seconds.
Yes. My word, how many of these are you knocking out a minute?
About 20 a minute?
You've got to do 24 shoes in 15 minutes.
You've got to do 24 shoes in 15 minutes?
Yes. How many times have you stitched your hand to the machine?
Never. I would never be able to do it that quick.
'Time to find out if I've got what it takes
'to build a shoe in 37 seconds.'
Stand back, Susan, stand back.
Get me a vamp, please.
Right foot vamp. Give me collar plugs.
There you are. On that side. Like that?
Make sure it lines up with all the holes.
Lines up the what? With all them holes.
Is that not bad? No, you're doing well.
And then I twist the knobs to shut it up.
Well done, you can have a job.
Are you pleased with me? Yes.
'Susan might be impressed, but I'm only halfway done.
'I've now got more layers to add with Charlene Steele
'at the next auto-stitch station.'
You fit your vamps onto the pallets,
then you fit your apron.
And you tip.
Then you place your two Ns on, your Ns go to the outside.
'Team Solway must make 444 pairs of shoes in a day,
'and their hourly targets are displayed on a board
'for everyone to see.
'I thought I was being fast, but it seems that's not the case.'
We are minus 16 now.
We are 16, like, behind.
Is that because of me?
Well, yeah, we've stopped sort of thing, haven't we?
I'm out of here, I won't slow you down any more, I promise. Right!
'Luckily, this next part is one of the quickest.
'The final step for the upper part of my trainer
'is to punch holes for the laces.'
We've got lace holes.
That, for the first time, now looks like a shoe.
This factory makes up to 75 different designs
and they're constantly coming up with new ones.
Cherry has been learning the tricks of the trade
with some of Britain's up-and-coming shoe designers.
I'm doing OK here, aren't I?
Yeah, you're doing good.
Cordwainers College is part of the London College of Fashion.
Over the last 129 years,
it's been turning out some of the best shoe designers in the country.
Here, students learn to design and make their shoes all under one roof
and this is where Jimmy Choo learned his trade.
A three-year design course teaches them how to turn creative ideas
into practical, commercial products.
Kitty Shukman is in the second year of her course.
How much work goes into designing a shoe?
Is it as easy as I think it is?
You just get a shoe and stick things on it?
No, not at all. I don't think anyone realises
how much really goes in beforehand.
You have so many stages to it and so many ideas that come to it.
So something that can look really simple
has actually had so much thought put in.
'The students usually get 12 weeks to complete each project,
'but they've offered to help me make the shoe of my dreams
'in just one day.'
This is such a treat, this really is.
I can't believe you're going to help me design a shoe.
'My brief for them is a fun and colourful party shoe
'with a Brazilian twist. I've called it Rio Rave.
'But there's a lot more to designing a shoe
'than producing a fancy drawing,
'as lecturer Ian Goff and course leader Sarah Day explain.'
When your students are designing shoes to make in the outside world,
what do they have to think about?
First of all, to think about the price and commerciality
and suitability for the consumer. So they've got to be wearable,
they've got to hold someone's weight. Yep. They've got to last.
Make the company money that they are doing it for, of course!
'The students have come up with some inspiring ideas for my Rio Rave,
'but now I have to choose.'
All of the shoes here today are amazingly creative and wonderful.
But obviously I only have one day to make my shoe.
We need to have a fairly practical design.
This would be quite simple to make
because it's obviously based around the court shoe shape.
Yes, we've got some great colours there.
I absolutely love that.
'Student Ashley Chambers designed the court shoe we've chosen.
'It has a continuous top edge and simple high heel
'and it's one of the easiest designs to manufacture.
'The next step is to pick my materials
'and I've been let loose in the college vaults.'
Oh, it's like Aladdin's cave!
'A pair of women's shoes can sell for tens or thousands of pounds,
'and that depends on the complexity of the design,
'the quality of materials and the reputation of the designer.'
Is this too bling for the lining?
No, I think that would go quite well.
'But before I can build my shoe, I need to choose an appropriate last.'
So, a last is the foundation on which you build the shoe?
That's correct, yes.
There's all sorts of different shapes, heel heights.
Basically, the shoe is constructed on the last,
that's what gives it its shape and its form.
So, a size seven in a shape that looks similar to what we've designed
is this. And it's called Sarah.
That's right. Why is it called Sarah?
So all the lasts have an identification name or number.
It's just an industry standard so that when you produce a design spec,
and you send that to the factory,
they know exactly what shape you want to make your shoes on.
'Last year in the UK,
'sales of women's designer shoes topped £532 million.
'Every one of the thousands of different designs
'would have started life as a prototype
'built on a last like this one.
'We are using my Sarah last to make a paper template
'to cut the leather for the upper part of the shoe.
'While some of the other students are getting to work
'on the straps and accessories,
'a thermoplastic stiffener is slipped
'between the lining and the leather
'to make sure the shoe keeps its shape,
'then it's heated and moulded on a machine.'
Oh, look!
You can see it is really starting to take shape. Yes.
'Next, we are going to add the heels.'
It's funny cos when they are away from the shoe,
they just don't look very strong.
Is that really going to hold my weight? Yes, they will,
because they've got metal, so they are reinforced.
'Because the point of the heel is so small,
'a 60kg woman exerts 16 times more pressure on the ground
'than a five tonne elephant so, to stop them from breaking,
'the heels have to be nailed into the shoe's base.'
Whoa!
'It's taken seven of us all day to make my shoes
'and now it's the moment of truth.'
Look what we made! Woohoo!
Rio Rave they most certainly are.
They're really good, aren't they? Well done, you!
I had absolutely no idea how much time and effort it takes
to make a pair of designer shoes.
They are a real testament to the skill of the students here
and I can't wait to see where they will end up.
'Design and style is also key here at the trainer factory in Cumbria.
'Development manager Chris Hodgson
'reveals some quirky British influences.'
The Kings Head.
The Royal Oak. The Red Lion.
Are they pubs? They are the three most popular pub names in England.
You made shoes designed around pubs.
You've got a Chesterfield settee leather on the front.
You've got a Paisley wallpaper,
and if you look inside it,
you've got a stone floor with a beer glass stain on the top.
You have! You've got a stone floor on the inside.
What else? These are representations of varying jackets.
So what you have there between the black marl and the black leather
and the Day-Glo orange is basically a workman's donkey jacket.
It is. That is actually a donkey...
When you started here making running shoes,
did you ever think you would eventually be asked
to make a shoe that looked like a pub?
Beyond my wildest comprehension.
I've worn plenty of shoes IN the pub,
but I've never been asked to make one that LOOKS like one.
It's been 22 minutes since I started making my leather trainers
and so far I've made the upper part of the shoe.
Now I'm heading to Manual Stitch,
where I'll transform my upper from flat to 3-D.
'Jean Fox is one of eight ladies
'whose skill with a sewing machine is essential for this job.'
This is the start of making it look like a shoe.
So you put that round the machine like that
and you bring the backs together.
Then you cut the tape and you turn it around.
Right, step back, madam.
Let me show you how it's done.
Go on, Gregg, guide it along, so you're keeping these together.
Oh, I've got you. Yeah. Aah!
Slow, slow... Aah!
I've broke it.
It's now just wrapping like a coil of rope around itself.
You've got that stuck. How many shoes behind are we now?
A lot. About 40.
Useless!
'Thankfully, Jean is able to rescue my botched upper.'
Jean, I'm sorry, I'm out of here.
Thanks for your efforts. Right, see you.
'My mistakes are holding up the production line
'and I've put Team Solway 40 shoes behind their target.
'Time to stop mucking about and get serious about making my shoes.
'Next person to babysit me is Marion Hyde.'
Pleased to meet you. Now,
can you tell me how we now turn these into proper shoes?
First operation is what we call on this shoe backtab and collar.
It's called what? Backtab...
And collar? Isn't that where they remove the hairs from your...
No. Backtab, not waxing.
Backtab. Got you, got you.
The backtab and collar provides support to your ankle
and we need to stitch them to the upper part of my shoe.
Safety first, Gregg.
Need to tie up my hair, first stage.
Right, on this machine it can be very dangerous, watch fingers.
Pinkies could disappear.
Right? What?!
Be very careful.
Just keep your fingers well away.
Come close to the edge with that needle.
Slowly does it. Right, follow the curve of the shoe.
Move your shoe around.
Get off, get off, get off!
That's it, stop. Lift your foot.
Turn around. Pull it out.
Put your threads...
'Luckily, I didn't mess this one up,
'or I'd have put Team Solway even further behind their target.'
I tell you what, I found all that very, very stressful.
I held my breath through all of that.
Did you? Why? Cos you did really well on that bit.
Thank you. You've got a good teacher, you see.
That isn't just the machine, that's human skill with a machine.
It is, correct. Is that all right?
That's a lot better. Not 100%, but a lot better.
Can I have a sit down now?
Not break time yet.
Machines like this are the reason
that modern factories can produce thousands of shoes every day.
But when they were first introduced in the 19th century,
not everybody was happy about it.
There was a time before factories,
when every town and village in Britain had a shoemaker.
In 1851, it was a profession more common than being a tailor,
a blacksmith or a coal miner.
It was a cottage industry.
The workers collected the leather from the middlemen in town,
but they sewed the shoes at home.
'Tod Booth still hand-makes his shoes in the traditional way.'
This is an upper from a pair of shoes.
Right. So, do you want to have a go?
So, this is the way all shoes used to be made.
Absolutely, they started using this method in the Roman times,
it passed all the way through the Vikings,
the Saxons, medieval, Tudor,
17th century and 18th century,
and of course even now I'm making shoes like this today.
So, this is very much a craftsperson doing the whole process.
Absolutely. They have to do everything.
They have to select the leather,
they have to design the shoe, they have to cut the leather,
they have to prepare it, they have to put it together,
they have to make the whole shoe and finish it as well.
It's slow, isn't it? It's not even as if the sewing is one process,
you've already had to go around and make all the holes the first time.
To make a pair of shoes takes me about eight hours.
What do you think?
That's not bad.
That's not bad. But it has taken you nearly two hours.
I'm not sure I'll employ you as an apprentice.
However, for a first go, that's not bad at all.
Back in the middle of the 19th century,
there was one town that had established a reputation
for making some of the best shoes in the country - Northampton.
Here, over a third of all men were shoemakers,
mostly working from their homes.
But this way of life, with its relative tranquillity,
was broken in the 1850s when the Industrial Revolution came to town.
It came in the form of a new invention - the sewing machine.
It was up to 50 times faster than hand sewing,
but too large and expensive for workers to have in their homes,
so new factories were built to house them.
At the Crockett & Jones shoe factory in Northampton,
they still have a Singer treadle sewing machine
that was cutting edge for its day.
They are really quite heavy to work on, these machines.
It takes a surprising amount of muscle, actually.
I sometimes think, you know,
we imagine that the coming of machines
is always automatically a loss of skill.
In this case, it's just a different skill.
This is still craftwork.
The traditional shoemakers of Northampton
railed against the new machines, going on strike in 1859.
They were loath to join a production line with set hours and set pay.
But with growing concerns over cheap shoe imports,
it was agreed that the sewing machine
could be introduced to sew the uppers,
work traditionally done by women.
'Rebecca Shawcross from the Northampton Shoe Museum explains.'
We are standing in the closing room now.
This is the closing room probably about 1900.
The only man I can see in this whole image is him there
and he is clearly a supervisor.
Indeed. And even today, the closing, which is the sewing of the uppers,
is all done by women.
So were men pushed out of work as a result
of this large-scale employment of girls and women?
Not so much, just simply because
there's about 200 different processes involved in shoemaking
and the majority are done by men.
Gradually more of the shoemaking process was mechanised
and brought inside the factory.
So it didn't... Machines did not produce the unemployment
that everybody was frightened of? No, no.
With the rise of the machines, productivity exploded.
A company that made around 500,000 pairs of shoes a year
in the late 1850s
could make five million pairs of shoes ten years later.
Northampton boomed as a shoemaking centre, and over the next 40 years,
the population doubled.
And life for the shoemaker was unrecognisable
from the old cottage industry.
It must have been really difficult for people
to make that transition from being somebody
who made a whole pair of shoes
to somebody who was just involved in part of a much bigger process
within a regulated factory. But looking around today,
it is clear that a level of skill
and indeed craftsmanship, is still absolutely necessary.
I'm at the New Balance shoe factory in Cumbria,
where Team Solway are helping me make
my very own pair of leather trainers.
So far, I've cut my leather pieces,
reinforced and embroidered them and stitched them together
to form the shoe upper.
And it has only taken 25 minutes.
The next stage in Manual Stitch
is where my upper will get cushioning sewn inside.
Whoa, that's the fastest thing I've ever seen!
Insides stitched.
Tongue cushioned.
You look like you might be a bit of a wiz.
That's precision, isn't it?
Heel padded.
So I've got to hold down the tongue and then slide my lever under.
Don't let go of your tongue. I won't let go of my tongue.
All attached. My upper is now complete.
No-one who bought these shoes would imagine for a moment,
I'm telling you, that they have been hand-stitched
by Charlene, Jean, Gillian, Lucy,
Susan, Claire and Liz.
And not forgetting Marion. Yes. Correct. No-one. I know.
What an operation!
I'm leaving this bit of ladies, to put them in there.
We are going to a very blokey looking bit, aren't we?
The section I'm heading to is overseen by Jim Fox and his team
and it's called Moulding.
Here, my shoes come out of an oven at 110 degrees Celsius.
Jim, why are my shoes in this oven?
We need them to be malleable so they mould around the last.
What's a last? It's a foot mould, what we make the shoe on.
Right, that's a last.
That's hot and steaming in there
because we need the leather to be pliable
so we can stretch it over the shape of the shoe? Correct.
Can I have a go, Jim? You can have a go. Put it onto the peg.
Right, take the upper from the...
Waah! It's really hot, yes.
You've got a shoehorn to help you.
I don't need a shoehorn. I'm as strong as an ox.
Now, where does this go? That goes on underneath the sock.
And you've got to do this while the shoe is hot
so that the leather will stretch?
That's it. You are just going to pass this across to Steven.
Steven, show me what to do.
The pincers are getting hold of the leather,
feed it into the other pincers and pull down.
He leaves hot melted glue underneath
and he closes the uppers around the last.
When it comes out of that after ten seconds,
you will see what we call a lasted edge.
Like so.
This machine effectively stretches the leather upper around the moulds,
gluing it firmly into position.
I've now been making my trainers for 29 minutes,
and they are finally coming together.
The shoes that are made here are exported all over the world,
so shoes today could end up
in a high street in Workington down the road,
or Fifth Avenue, New York.
Cherry has been to a more unusual shoe factory -
a place that makes thousands of shoes every day,
none of which will ever see the street.
No-one has a relationship with their shoes quite like a ballerina.
And even though they are not pounding the pavement,
they can get through a pair of shoes in a single performance.
This is me aged nine at my first-ever ballet performance.
It's one of my happiest childhood memories.
I vividly remember the day I got my first pair of ballet shoes,
I was over the moon. I cherished them,
I loved that they were really pretty and delicate, but so strong.
I've always wondered, how do they make them?
Freed of London make 250,000 pairs of ballet shoes every year,
supplying most of the ballet companies
and top ballet dancers around the world.
Their production techniques have barely changed
over the last 87 years.
Each pair is handmade by one of the 95 workers,
often to the specific requirements of each dancer.
'Alan Doherty is going to fill me in
'on some of the secrets to making pointed shoes.'
Each maker's got their own symbol.
So anyone who is wearing a pair of shoes made by you
will be able to tell? Yeah.
'The shoe is created inside out in the traditional turn shoe method
'to keep the stitching out of sight.
'First, the inner soul is stapled to a last
'and placed onto your satin and cotton upper.'
Hold it in with a single nail.
'Point shoes need the toes reinforcing
'and it is done with a surprising ingredient.'
It looks like very old porridge.
It is flour, water and a few secret ingredients.
First of all, what we do is get some paste. Yep.
Spread it all over. All over the shoe, like so.
Is that really sticky enough, just water and a few other bits?
Yep. Piece of hessian,
right up to the point where the nail is.
A little bit more paste.
Another piece of hessian.
And then we finish it off with a bit of tissue.
That is your shoe, your block.
'Now the pleats are created.'
Pull and twist.
How many shoes do you think you make a day?
I make 34 pairs.
34 exactly? I do, yes.
'The shoes are then hand-stitched in the sewing room
'and returned to be turned the right way round.'
So you're rolling it out. Roll it.
Oh, I see! Then twist.
This is what this is for, the broom handle. Right!
Oh, wow! Hand-done.
'The most important step comes next as the point is shaped.
'Then the insole is pasted in.'
And now we are finishing it.
More bashing. More bashing.
It is brilliant that the most useful tool is a hammer.
Hammer, oh, yes.
The way you do this is unique to you.
Unique to me, yes.
It's the moment of truth now.
Oh, wow! And it must make you really proud.
It does, it does make me proud knowing that someone,
somewhere in the world is wearing our shoes.
'From here, the shoe is baked in an oven
'at 70 degrees Celsius for eight hours to make the block go hard
'before a final stitching and a meticulous quality control.
'All in all, it's a 16-hour process.
'I've been granted privileged access backstage at the Royal Ballet
'where they get through 13,000 pairs of shoes a year
'at a cost of £250,000.
'And yet these new ballet shoes
'are not yet considered performance-ready,
'as each dancer will customise their own shoe.
'I am meeting acclaimed principal dancer Lauren Cuthbertson
'to find out how she prepares her shoes for the big night.'
So, these look brand-new.
Can you just put these on and dance in them tonight?
Well, they would need to be broken in.
'An unbroken shoe isn't flexible and does not support the foot en pointe.
'All ballerinas have their own unique way
'of customising to improve performance.'
This is how I do it. Whoa!
So I am just making it more malleable in the sock.
Oh, my goodness! The top part of the shoe,
you can feel it sort of starts to melt in your hands. Yes.
'This manipulation gets the shoe to hug the foot perfectly.'
How do they feel? It feels like home. Really? Yeah!
I literally couldn't imagine wearing anything else.
'Lauren also likes to add a few vital wool stitches
'to the point of her shoes for added traction.'
It just makes me feel less vulnerable
next to the surface of the floor.
Sometimes I feel like I might slip and slide around
and I don't want to feel like that. It defines the edge of the shoe.
For a performance, I would then scrape off the satin
at the end of the shoe.
'There is one last trick to soften the block
'that allows Lauren to perform at her best.'
I would do it on the concrete tiles of the bathroom
and I would go...
..like that quite a few times to take the noise out.
So, is having the right fit vital to your career?
Yeah. It is absolutely vital.
I had absolutely no idea that the quality of the shoe is critical.
It's not just a shoe.
It is a tool and it can make or break the performance.
At the trainer factory in Cumbria,
I have been making my shoes for just 30 minutes
and I already have something resembling a trainer.
It's just lacking SOLE.
Fortunately, the next stop on the production line is Sole Fitting.
Right, I have heated, I've stretched front and back,
I've got a bit of an innard in there.
Now what? Now we are going to rough in the bottom of the sole.
How do we rough it up?
Put it on another buffer? We have a machine, a robot roughing machine.
A robot roughing machine!
Yes. You take the right foot onto that peg
and then you press the blue button.
Stick it on here, Jim.
Yeah. Like that? Like that.
Onto there. Ready? Ready.
'This robot rougher was installed at the factory ten years ago
'and cost £120,000.
'I can see that it is roughing the shoe with precision accuracy,
'but it is leaving the leather in a right old state.'
That is your roughing almost complete.
That robot has just ruined my shoe.
No, it hasn't. He's ruined it, look.
I am going to turn it round now and show you the back.
That has roughened the area where we are going to apply the glue
so the sole we put on this bonds to it correctly.
Theresa!
'Theresa Tyson's job is to apply the glue that will stick on the soles,
'but first we need to apply some primer.'
You hold your shoe like that.
A little bit on your brush.
You do the toe and the four-part to them marks there.
How's that?
Could be a bit quicker!
That doesn't really matter if I get it on the sole, does it?
No, it doesn't matter,
but you have to keep within the marks of the line. Yeah, I get that.
Ooh, Theresa, look what you did.
It's all right, I've got your back.
Just take it all the way around the shoe.
Next, the sole and the glued shoe pass through a machine
called a cement drier,
where an infrared light raises the temperature
to over 120 degrees Celsius.
This activates the special glue,
making them ready to stick together.
While I wait for that to happen,
Cherry has been learning that choosing the right footwear
is critical because get it wrong
and your feet could be in big trouble.
Three-quarters of us will experience foot problems at some stage
and she is finding out why.
As a nation, we are struggling to choose the best shoes
to keep our feet healthy.
90% of women, for instance, are wearing shoes too small for them.
Podiatrist Matthew Fitzpatrick believes
that some very common ailments can be sorted
by simply wearing the right footwear.
We have come to a bowling alley to check out people's feet.
First up is Annetta.
Shall we have a look at this foot of yours?
Yes. OK, pop it up, let's have a look.
Bunions. Uncomfortable?
It's very painful. What is a bunion?
A bunion is a deformity that is around the big toe joint
so what causes it is both hereditary
so it can run in the family,
but tight-fitting footwear can lead to stress and strain
around the soft tissues and so this area here
becomes more prone to rubbing,
that rubbing becomes irritated and red and inflamed
and that becomes painful.
So, what can Annetta do to relieve the discomfort?
So, a lot of the discomfort can be managed by the right shoes.
Because when you are wearing tighter fitting shoes, it is going to rub
and that rubbing can cause redness, swelling and pain.
Women are more susceptible to bunions than men
because high heels and pointy-toed shoes make the condition worse.
Next up is Hitesh,
who thinks he may be struggling with athletes' foot,
a fungal infection.
So, where is the bit that you think is causing the most problems?
In between the toes here.
In between the two toes there. OK.
It gets really annoying because at some points you are itching so much.
So, when a fungal element has developed,
what does it like? Warm, dark and damp.
A shoe is a perfect place to do that. Yeah.
So, what you want to do is make that an inhospitable environment.
Shoes get damp so what you shouldn't do
is wear the same pair of shoes two days running
cos shoes need time to dry out. Oh, I see.
We all sweat around half a pint of fluid from our feet every day.
So, wearing shoes made of a breathable material
like leather also helps.
One problem we all face is getting our shoe size wrong.
Luke Scott believes he takes a size ten bowling shoe.
Luke tells me he is ready to go for a bowl.
Size ten shoes.
Shall we see? Is that right?
Luke is actually a UK 11 and not a UK ten.
So, Luke, why have you been wearing a ten?
I wear a ten in trainers and I wear 11 in shoes.
Aha, so that's a really good point
cos what we're finding now
is manufacturers' sizes are specific to the manufacturer,
not generically across all so don't buy the shoe size
that you think you are - buy the shoe that fits.
But also it is about when you get your shoes measured
and what we always advise is do it at the end of the day,
in the afternoon,
because throughout the day, our feet will slightly swell
so if you measure your feet first thing in the morning,
you might get one size, you'll buy a perfect shoe that fits,
but if you wear them all day, they'll get tight.
So, next time you are buying a pair of shoes or even going bowling,
remember to take the time to find the shoe that fits.
At the New Balance factory on the edge of the Lake District,
I have been making my very own pair of trainers.
Having joined the team in Cutting,
I have now made it all the way round the production line
to Sole Fitting.
My trainer and sole have had glue pasted on
and put through a cement drier to activate.
Now it is time to stick them together.
And that is Carl Dryden's job with his sole press machine.
No, no, no, let me do it! Like that?
No. Tell me. Like that.
And you get the sole like that
and you put it on like that. I see, I see, I see.
So, hold it, bend the toe towards it,
get that in there, line it up and get this in there.
You turn it upside down. Heel first, upside down.
And then press that button. Whoa!
Whoa! Goodbye, shoe!
'The compression machine fills with air,
'forcing the glued sole to the upper
'with a pressure that is like the weight of a rhino
'pressing down on it.'
That's my shoe. That's my shoe.
And then just... Yeah.
Ha-ha!
INDISTINCT I made this shoe.
I made this shoe right from the very beginning.
My shoes are complete, 34 minutes after I began making them.
But they need one last inspection
and that's done by Kerry Hoskins.
Kerry, my shoes are behind there, why are in that little machine?
It's a metal detector.
Is that right? Yeah. What would be in them?
Needles from the machine, wire off the rougher.
Can we do mine next? Yeah.
These are mine, what are we looking for?
You've got to check all your stitching.
Make sure there's none broken.
Make sure your back height is right, the shoes aren't twisted.
They are pretty good, aren't they? Yeah, lovely.
Now what are you doing? Tag.
I am ridiculously proud of these shoes
and I never imagined so much work went into them.
I think these are a thing of beauty, don't you?
Yeah.
Careful!
They are Gregg Wallace ones, they are!
# I'm a soul man
# I'm a soul man... #
To make my one pair of shoes,
it has taken 8,900 stitches and used 65 metres of cotton.
I took 35 minutes to complete them
which may sound quick, but at this rate,
I would only make 17 pairs a day.
Working at full steam,
the six teams here can pump out a pair of shoes every nine seconds.
The finished trainers, including mine,
are boxed up and taken across to the distribution warehouse.
Pallets for delivery are wrapped up before being loaded into lorries.
At the end of the day, the factory has made 3,626 pairs of shoes
with a total retail value of over £250,000.
Not bad for a day's work!
What's impressed me about making trainers on this scale
isn't just the speed and the volume that they make,
it is actually the people - from the ladies stitching by hand
to the guys cutting out material.
These trainers are sent to shops across the country.
People in Scotland buy more shoes than anyone else in the UK,
but 80% of the factory's output is exported -
even to shoemaking hot spots like America and China.
I am very proud of the shoes I made
and I like to think that someone, somewhere in the world,
is soon going to be the proud owner of those blue trainers.