Page 34 - Shoeman no ch 1

30 Shoeman
satis ed with the volume. For us it was a satisfactory venture using existing tooling and having a high ex-factory price carrying a good share of the overheads.
“FREELANCE” FRENCH FASHION
In April 1983 we had a contact from the export salesman of Frank Wright’s who were long-established shoe makers in Kettering. Frank Wright’s had nancial problems and were going into liquidation. They had a valued customer in France with whom they had just developed a specialist welted fashion range. Frank Wright’s salesman had clearly put considerable time and effort into this development and felt obligated to this customer to nd another suitable source of supply. Frank Wright’s had been in business much longer than us and had shareholders over many generations. A dif - cult situation for any management. It is even more dif cult when you, as Managing Director, decide to get involved in the Shoe Manufacturers Federation to the point of being President, when you are the captain of a sinking ship. I knew this person quite well. He clearly had an ego problem that made him seek fame in what turned out to be the wrong direction.
The Freelance Company which they were working with was a family business at La Gaubretiere, near Nantes in North West France. They had a factory making middle market ladies shoes and were just in the midst of a uniquely developing high-grade market for men’s fashion shoes. Guy, the younger brother, was a hands-on shoe maker and ran the factory. Yvon was an energy man who was developing in other directions with better-grade products for a select market.
The men’s shoe direction was to an older punk market that was clearly a market unique to France, a sort of Harley Davidson market. In fact, I still think it was one he created for shoes. Now, the product had a heavy wide toe, natural leather sole, and a stack heel of about 1.1/2 – 2 inches and lighter colour uppers. We made samples quickly and I went to La Gubretiere and Yvon gave me an order. He also made it clear he wanted to see the shoes before we delivered them. Our delivery system was to deliver his shoes and collect heel blocks on the way back from Maunoir – down the road at Fougere.
All went well and it was the start of a 3 year relationship that I can only describe as fascinating, enlightening, fun and rewarding. Yvon was a fashion natural. He wore outlandish clothes, and knew exactly in what direction he was aiming. He made fre- quents visits to the factory developing designs. John and Yvon found visits to the museum in Northampton helped their creative ability. He and John would spend many hours there during the time we worked together. I would visit La Gaubretiere at least 4 times a year but every visit was different with Yvon. On the earlier visits he would collect me from Nantes airport and that happened with precision on the rst visits. Then, as our relationship became more relaxed, he would pick me up and take me out to dinner with his pals ending up at the local hotel after midnight, when it was closed. That resulted in me sleeping at his house which was furnished as a pro- jection of his personality with items like Juke Boxes and other memorabilia.