SMALL STEP, GIANT LEAP

To say that I am proud and excited to be able to offer my current and future clients a Made to Order Shoe Service from Hemingway Tailors is an understatement!

Providing handcrafted shoes alongside our tailoring services means our clients can now design shoes to complement their new outfit. This now completes our range of bespoke tailoring services.

There is no denying that wearing a great looking pair of well-designed shoes, made especially to fit you, helps you to look smart and feel great.

They provide the wearer with an extra boost of confidence, whether worn for a special celebration, job interview, public appearance, or any other occasion.

Now, Hemingway Tailors has the facility for you to design your own Made to Order shoes to complement your new outfit!

No matter the occasion, we have literally thousands of options for you to choose from.

Every pair of shoes is handmade by the finest craftsmen to your own individual design and specification of you, the Hemingway Tailors’ client.

Installed on our website is an easy-to-use shoe-builder app to help you to design the perfect pair of shoes for you, including the toe shape, sole and materials best suited for your purpose, so you can enjoy wearing an individual pair of Made to Order shoes that best reflect you!

You may wonder why I am so passionate about our latest addition of a Made to Order shoe service for our clients to design their own shoes?

Well, the answer to this question simply lies in my own story…

Toby Luper, founder of Hemingway Tailors

I was sadly born with a severe case of ‘club feet’ and back in 1953 it was a condition that was not easy to treat.

The normal method was to correct the condition via surgical means, but the chances of it being successful was only around 20%.

My parents thought that these weren’t good odds, so decided to ask for a second opinion.

As my family was in tailoring and had lots of connections, I was fortunate that the person they asked for a second opinion was Mr Dennis Brown, who had a practice on Harley Street in London.

He was also associated with Great Ormond Street Hospital and would go on to be knighted by the late HM The Queen for his services to children’s medicine.

However, at that time, his methods were not considered to be mainstream and involved using plaster of Paris to reshape the malleable bones of children born with the condition.

Although his methods were unorthodox, he produced far more successful results than the operations being carried out at that time.

Unfortunately, my case was most severe.

I had to travel to London regularly and had lots of plaster casts replaced over the years.

Consequently, I wasn’t able to walk without aid until I was six years old, wearing callipers designed especially for me by Mr Dennis Brown, which I continued to wear at night until the age of eleven.

These callipers are now called the Sir Dennis Brown splint and are still successfully used today for the treatment of club feet.

This photo of me in Trafalgar Square reminds me of those visits to London so much. 

I was 7 years old when the picture was taken, wearing shoes which were very heavily built up on the outside to help to force my feet to be corrected. 

Even with them, my feet still turned slightly inwards.  Thankfully this improved as treatment continued.

My legs have continued to be as skinny as they were back then because my calves have never really developed properly which is a result of the condition.

But by the age of sixteen my mobility had improved so much that I was selected to play semi-professional football!

This was absolutely amazing for both me and my parents, and testament to Sir Dennis’s perseverance and his undoubted skill in treating my condition.

Toby pictured before playing for ex LUFC players in a Charity game against Doncaster Rovers ex-players in his late 20’s early 30’s.

Meeting Tony Slinger

I met Tony Slinger when he contacted me to discuss offering his fully handcrafted bespoke shoe-making service to my Hemingway Tailor clients.

He did this without any knowledge of my personal background or the fact that I have always had to have bespoke shoes made especially for me.

I agreed to meet him, and although we got on really well, I insisted that he prove his skills by making me a pair of bespoke shoes.

I thought that as he had been trained at W. H. Poole in Leeds (a well renowned orthopaedic shoe manufacturer) and if he could make me a well-fitting pair of shoes with my misshapen feet, he could easily provide the same service for some of Hemingway Tailors’ more discerning clients! (You can read more about Tony Slinger on LinkedIn.)

When I discovered my Made to Order bespoke shoe service supplier, I consequently started to think seriously of how I would go about offering a new and complementary service to all our current and future clients at Hemingway Tailors.

I therefore decided to test them out by ordering a couple of pairs of shoes to check the quality of craftsmanship and materials and was instantly impressed with both the fit and workmanship for standard sized shoes.

However, as I know that I am not an expert in this field, so I obviously took them to show Tony Slinger to see whether he agreed with me.

As the Hemingway Tailors brand represents luxury tailored clothing, and our story of craftsmanship and attention to detail goes back a long way, it was particularly important to me that if I went ahead with a Made to Order shoe service, it would have to reflect our values and mission as a brand.

I need not have worried because Tony was just as impressed as I was with the high standard of craftsmanship and materials!

After consulting with Tony and hearing his favourable opinion of the supplier, I decided that I would run with them.

This supplier gave me the option to provide a Made to Order shoe service for everyone at almost bespoke quality and yet for far more affordable prices than totally bespoke shoes.

Tony was incredibly supportive and even agreed to add his name as a seal of approval to highlight the quality Hemingway Tailors’ clients could expect from the new Made to Order shoe service.