Looking forward, one of the first dates with a red marker pen circle about it for us is the Grand National. It's something I haven't had the pleasure to enjoying yet but all I do know is I'm constantly reminded that I'm missing out. With the big couple of days in Liverpool (4th, 5th and 6th April) not too far away its a chance for racegoers to put on their best spread, so with this in mind we thought our Grenson Shoes could be the perfect companion to that perfectly pressed three piece you either have in the wardrobe already or have been eyeing up in the shops. Here's our favourite selection of Northampton's finest shoes for the Grand National, good year welted and built to last they are a highly recommended investment and remember a good shoe isn't just for the races.

Stanley
One of Grenson's originals, Stanley or as we commonly refer to him as 'Mr Classic' started life as the son of Albert (Grenson's first brogue) and has remained in the collection since in various guises for over 80 years. A classic English brogue with a wing tip and full traditional broguing he is also an oxford as the vamp is laid of top of the quarters instead of underneath like a gibson or a derby. If your looking to invest in a brogue for the first time we would always point in Stanley's way as he's a true English gent.

Sid
Sid can be addressed by a number of names including and more commonly known as a royal brogue but then there's galosh brogue and over the Atlantic he is known as a long wing. All strong names and rightly so, Sid is a classic wing tip except that the wing runs the length of the shoe to the back strap instead of dipping down into the welt with is a more common occurrence. Crafted from either premium calf grained leather or a high shine calf leather, both are on a double sole and split welt. This is in our eyes more of a smart casual style but will sit just right with a suit trouser and will be a different flavour.

Tom
Tom has a nickname in store as the 'Suit Shoe' soley down to fact we feel a suit trouser sits at its best and peaks with a Tom on your foot. A very British shoes, he is a semi brogue and made for the city but can easily be dressed down for the weekends. A slightly slimmer profile with a more elongated last, unlined and featuring a semi brogue toe cap, Tom feels just at home in the office as he does propped up at the bar.

Ellery
A newcomer to the Weavers Door Grenson pack, Ellery is a double buckle monk and fits very much the same as Tom (they are on the same last) and equally makes a handsome shoe option for the races. We have already noticed the ladies picking him up in store, and as the say 'a women judges a man by his shoes' were sure with Ellery on your feet your be doing just fine. Crafted in premium calf leather.

Having starting out as a rudimentary shoe originating in Scotland and Ireland and constructed using undyed leather with perforations to allow water to drain from the shoes when the wearer crossed wet terrain such as a bog, its safe to say the modern brogue has changed a fair bit over time both in function and reasoning of wear but the craft behind these beautifully made shoes is something that hasn't been tampered with and rightly so, keeping to the thought of 'If it isn't a broke, no need to fix it'. This stand in skill and craftsmanship if what is one of the main attractions for us, our friends and customer's when it comes to the Grenson Shoes, the Nortampton Shoemakers from the midlands clobber's town Northampton have been hand crafting the finest shoes and boots since 1866, are still in the same factory they built in 1895 and still make their shoes very much the same as they did back in the day. All the Grenson Shoes are Goodyear Welted, meaning they use a traditional method of manufacture using this orignial hand sewn method which benefits the wearer as the Goodyear Welt construction allows for a constant flow of air through the shoe, keeping the shoes ventilated, durable and strong along with using the finest shoe making materials.

Having set the scene let's talk shoes, in particular the Archie Brogue Shoe, a stellar example of shoe making, the Archie Brogue is based on Mr Classic, Stanley, but some of the features are exaggerated including a over sized brogue punching detailing and triple Goodyear Welted sole, while the classic premium waxed leather upper keeps Archie sensible and timeless, exactly what you would expect from a true style icon, but a case of Archie certainly wearing you and not the other way round.

It's no feel secret that i'm a bit of a fan of Grenson's shoes, its almost all i wear in store and it takes a alot to get me out of them! We are due a interview with Grenson very soon but in the meantime feast your eyes on this nice Q&A from GILT Man with Tim Little of Grenson. A Thankyou and well done to GILT Man for the nice interview:

GILT MAN Q&A with Tim Little of Grenson:
As an ad exec in the early 90s, Tim Little reinvigorated Adidas. Now, as creative director and owner of Grenson, he is raising the storied Northampton-based brand back to its rightful place among the elite men’s shoemakers. We talked with the footwear guru about his philosophy, his own line, and what he’s wearing.

Now that the last collection is out and placed in stores do you go back to the conceptual drawing board?
Next season is about three-quarters done already. It gets earlier and earlier these days because everyone wants the shoes earlier. They overlap and it starts to get weird. I often forget if I’m doing winter or spring/summer. What’s difficult is when there is a snowstorm outside and you are working on some new lightweight shoes, you know, for the beach.

Tell me about your process—from going back through the really rich archives, to doing things like the Glenn boot?
What we’re really well known for is the brogue, the classic wing tip. When I got involved I took the real classic beauty they had from the ‘50s and kind of reinvented it. From that shoe we’ve developed different versions—a really chunky version, a lightweight version that is more summery… Suede, things like that. Then there are shoes like Glenn. I saw this article with a picture of an Italian marching boot from about 1900. It was slightly awkward looking because it was so old, but we changed the last and we changed the materials a little bit and then I just made it look a little more up to date. Sometimes a shoe will start just completely from scratch.

You do some really great collaborations, like the Glenn with Tenue de Nîmes. How do you decide on the people you work with?
The one thing we do is we only work with brands and companies we like. We don’t like the collaborations that don’t make sense—a café in Manhattan collaborating with a shoemaker in England, you know, what are they doing? We’ve kind’ve kept it at a minimum. De Nîmes is a great one. And Tres Bien in Sweden—they’re a fantastic brand, a fantastic store. What they like to do is choose one of our shoes and then kind of customize it to them.

You know, you are probably the reason I wore shell-toe Adidas throughout my adolescence and the reason I am wearing Grensons now.
Amazing. I was working at an ad agency and we were hired by [Adidas] in ’92, when they were being destroyed by Nike all over the world. They’d become really un-cool. We started getting the old shoes out, saying, “you’ve got these amazing old shoes.” To start with they were really reticent about doing it, saying, “well, that’s old fashioned. We want to be modern.” Well, [I said,] “People are going to vintage shops looking for these old shoes. They’re desperate for them. And these are the people setting the trends. You want to start looking at the back catalog again.”

They were the coolest shoes in the world.
Which was your favorite? The shell toe?

The black and white shell toe with the fat laces.
Yeah. Well I’m a big gazelle fan. I always liked the straight gazelle.

What shoes do you wear now?
I wear mainly Adidas gazelles—of which I have about 15-20 pairs at the moment. And I wear classic wing tip brogues a lot. And then the other thing I wear all the time is the whole cut, made out of one piece of leather with no seems at all. I love the simplicity of it. Also I wear a few things—you know there are always patterns around the factory that were made slightly wrong—so I wear a few shoes that aren’t quite right. But that’s another story.

Where does Grenson fit in the cosmology of shoemakers?
What’s nice recently is the revival of brands with a story—heritage or older brands. People love the idea of buying a shoe from a shoemaker rather than from someone famous for a perfume or something. When you’ve got story and depth you are able to sell to everybody of all different ages. We get letters from an 80 year old guy who was a sergeant major in the army sending his shoes back to the factory 30 years ago and we’ll get an email from an 18 year old who has just saved up enough to get his first pair. It’s nice not to have a target audience. We just want to make nice shoes, really.

Does all of this leave you any time to work on your own line?
No. Hardly any. Over the last few years I’ve done bits and pieces but I haven’t done as much and had as much fun with it as I should’ve done. That’s the plan though.

Now when i saw this by Grenson the Shoemakers i thought it was right up my street! I like many other fellow gentleman share a passion, as I'm coming to terms with it being an addiction for shoes. So Grenson have came up with a genius concept to mix a man's basic train of thought 'men like drinking, men like shoes' so what did they do, they mixed the two. Grenson have recently opened a pop up in London's Selfridges, to be exact they have opened a Brogue bar. Pairing up the greatest combination known to gentrified mankind.

The Brogue bar concept has came about to celebrate Grenson for being the fine purveyors of shoes that they are and over 100 years of shoe making. Its also the first time their whole collection has been on display in one place, so if your passing by, its definitely worth a gander. Don't leave it too late as the pop up Brogue bar is only open until 12th of May, 2011.

If you don't happen to be fortunate enough to have the time to pop down to the Grenson Brogue Bar then feel free to check out our latest offering of Grenson's finely crafted shoes for Spring Summer 11 here. Any further information drop us a email to info@weaversdoor.com or call us on 0151-236-6001, let's talk shoes shall we.

A interesting little read see's Selectism talk to Tim Little, owner of Grenson about the brands growth and development in recent years and alot more. To check out the latest Spring/Summer 11 Grenson from Weavers Door by checking out the Grenson section of our website. If there's a style your after and we for some strange reason don't have it on show or available please feel free to contact us by email info@weaversdoor.com or call us on 0151-236-6001 and we can order in because our friends at Grenson are really good like that.