News – Wildsmith’s third rebirth

Wildsmith was one of the classic British quality men’s shoe brands, started already in 1847, but it was a long time since it had a prime. The original company was liquidated in the early 2000’s, and after two unsuccessful resurrections it’s now time for the third attempt.

Wildsmith is a brand that was highly recognised in the first half of the 1900’s, and made really nice bespoke and RTW shoes. Towards the end of the century, however, it was another story. They basically only sold overpriced re-branded Crockett & Jones’ shoes, and in the early 2000’s, the brand was laid to rest. Then in 2013 it was re-launched by Chay Cooper who had played a vital role in a revamp of Alfred Sargent, together with the men behind the successful tailoring house Cad and the Dandy. John Wilsdmith, fifth generation of the founding family, which sold the name to Cooper and co., was still involved, and was a member of the board. The new shoes which were made by Alfred Sargent was priced just over €300. It was good quality for the price, and had lasts and models that many appreciated.

A pair of Wildsmiths from 2014 that I had back then, the first revamp of the brand, when the shoes were made in the Alfred Sargent factory.

But after a couple of years Chay Cooper was offered a job at Crockett & Jones that he couldn’t say no to, so after another hiathus, the retailer Herring Shoes bought the rights to the brand, and introduced a new small range under the brand, also these made in the Sargent factory. That never seemed to take off though, and after a few years they weren’t produced anymore, and now Wildsmith was non-existent for another couple of years.

Now Wildsmith is back for a fourth round.

Until now. Herring has decided to give it a new try with Wildsmith, and this time do it rather differently. In 2018 Herring was bought by Paver, one of the largest shoe retail store chains in the UK with over 100 stores around the country, who also own Jones Bootmaker. It’s together with the Paver family that the folks at Herring has done the new revamp. Aim seems to be to create a more modern and contemporary lifestyle shoe brand, with the Wildsmith heritage as the base.

The diamond punching is a traditional Wildsmith feature.

The base for the styles comes from the Wildsmith archives, and already at launch there’s a bunch of models, from the given loafers to chunky boot. The shoes are now produced in Portugal, and are all Blake stitched (which I think is a bit of a shame, I much rather would have seen the foundation being Goodyear welted), uppers are either full grain calf, suedes or corrected grain leathers. Prices start from €270. Even if I personally would have preferred a bit more focus on quality, given that it hasn’t worked before for Wildsmith, I can understand one do a new take, and potentially it can be a nice bridge from cheaper cemented shoes over to better quality products for some people.

More diamond punching.

Nice chukka boot.

Two-tone penny loafer. All pictures: Wildsmith