Pediwear John Spencer Factory Visit 11th July 2011

As our regular customers will know we recently added John Spencer of England to our range of online shoes. When approached by John Spencer we were sufficiently impressed with the quality of the footwear to agree to stock them and sell them in our online store. The factory owner was kind enough to invite us over to view the factory in Spain where we could see the Goodyear Welted, handmade construction for ourselves.

The factory is situation 100km inland from Alicante in Almansa, a region with a rich heritage of shoemaking of its own. The current factory was built in 2009, the modern air conditioned cool environment is most welcome in the heat of the Spanish summer. The factory on the previous site has been producing shoes since the early 1927 and the evidence of shoemaking tradition and attention to detail is evident. Many of the machines are universal to high quality welted construction with a number having been made in Leicester or Northampton, even those on show in the factory museum.

Goodyear welted construction method involves many separate tasks carried out by skilled operators. The quality of the final product is testament to the skill and care invested in these shoes by the workforce. Though we were already familiar with the final product we very much appreciated the chance to view these processes in action, and this has only served to improve our confidence in the shoes.

John Spencer as a brand stopped producing shoes in Northamptonshire in the 1990’s. The owners of the brand however are keen to reproduce the same quality and style using time honoured construction methods and a highly skilled and motivated work force.The Spanish in this region are proud of their shoemaking heritage, and with good reason, judging from the evidence on display at their factory.

John Spencer at Pediwear