The CEO Series: George Glasgow Jr Of George Cleverley
Joining the family business was always my natural path. I studied economics at the University of London and worked in finance for a couple of years after that. I wanted to explore different avenues and see what else was out there, but in hindsight, this was always my passion and I was always going to end up back in the business. It doesn’t ever feel like work. When you’ve got a brilliant product like ours, it’s not a difficult job. It never feels like I’m out there selling, because people are always coming to us.
I’ve been working in our shop in the Royal Arcade since I was about ten. I’d be in the stock room, in our factory and in the workshop upstairs, doing odd jobs. Back then, shops were only open for a few hours on a Saturday, and I’d often come in with my dad and do the occasional morning shift.
The Cleverley name goes back to the 1800s. George’s father was a shoemaker and his cousins were shoemakers, but in 1958 George set up his own business. Then my dad joined him in the 70s. George passed away in the 90s. He was nearly 100. Since then, my father and I have carried on the tradition.
The business hasn't changed all that much since 1958. We're still making shoes by hand in Mayfair. We make them all upstairs, above the shop, which is really unusual. Even our method of measuring hasn’t changed much – our measuring sticks are 100 years old. We still use wooden shoes moulds – we've not taken any shortcuts. Other companies like to use 3D scanning, but we feel that doesn't work for us. Everything from the wooden lasts to the pattern making and the cutting is done by hand. The fact we're making shoes today the same way they were made hundreds of years ago is remarkable. In a world where everyone tries to take shortcuts and speed up the process, I think it’s a testament to a bespoke product.
Running a heritage brand in 2024 is interesting. We're the busiest now we've ever been – last year was a record year. I think this is thanks to a couple of things. One, George Cleverley was probably ahead of his time. He created such a beautiful shape and silhouette for his shoes that they still look stylish today. In the 50s and 60s, everyone was making very heavy, round-toed shoes. It was popular at the time, but people today want something that's a bit more elegant, a bit more attractive. Second, you have to keep your DNA and what you’ve built the business on, while incorporating additions. We now do ready-to-wear collections with Mr Porter and MyTheresa, but they’re still within the DNA of our brand. We’ve also launched a more casual offering through our trainers and loafers. The loafers are doing really well, probably accounting for about 30% of the business, which shows we’ve introduced things the customer wants and needs.
I like to be hands on. I just got back from a five-and-a-half-week tour of the US. I could send someone else, but I want to meet my customers. I want to see them and see what they're picking up, what they're ordering. You can't get that information without doing the networking. There's no shortcut. You’ve got to put the time in, standing there and meeting customers. That's how a lot of the more casual stuff came about too. People would say, “I love a trainer, but I don't want to wear big clunky sneakers” – or they’d be after a pair they could still wear with trousers. That’s when the cogs begin to turn and we start thinking about what that could look like. Then we start designing prototypes and go from there.
Every day is different, but there is a cycle to how my working year looks. Generally speaking, every spring and autumn we go to America and do our USA trunk show. Each tour takes about a month. There'll be me and a couple of the shoemakers who will go out and see all our customers in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Washington, Boston, New York, Nashville and Atlanta. We also do two trips a year to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Osaka. Then there's always about half a dozen other trips that take place throughout the year. This year, I was out in the Middle East to see the Sultan of Brunei. I was recently in Oklahoma to see Sylvester Stallone about his Tulsa King series two collection. And a couple years ago, I was in LA with Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham, doing all the shoes for Hobbs & Shaw. We also did the shoes for The King’s Man.
The word ‘bespoke’ is used for everything these days. I was at a place in New York the other week where they were advertising ‘bespoke sandwiches’. It's getting ridiculous. Our shoes are genuinely bespoke. When you come in, you're measured by hand. All the contours and measurements of your foot, the arch support, the width – everything – is then relayed to one of the shoemakers. That same guy carves, by hand, your last, which is a wooden replica of your foot. From there, you pick a style and a material. We hand cut all the patterns, fitting them around the last to get to the fitting stage, which is when you come back in and try your shoe on with no sole. That gives you the opportunity to say if you need more room or less room, or if there’s anything else you may or may not require. We make that adjustment to your last, then we hand-stitch on the soles. You’ll get the final product – your first pair – about ten months later. Subsequent pairs still take about three to four months to make by hand by six different specialists. There’s the last maker, the pattern maker, the closer – he’s the one who does all the broguing – and the bottom maker who stitches the shoes to the soles. There’s also a specialist who just makes shoe trimmings and the last person is an expert in patinas and polishing the shoes. All these people are experts in a specific area that takes between three to five years to train in. That’s bespoke.
We have a lot of A-list clients. Sly is one of them – he loves the two-tone look. Ralph Lauren is another great customer, as is the jeweller Nicola Bulgari. We also look after industry titans such as Apple CEO Tim Cook. We tend to attract actors, and it's quite nice because a lot of them are British, like Hugh Grant, Daniel Day Lewis, Henry Cavill and Jason Statham. It’s nice to see British artists representing British shoes. And they buy them because they rate them. We don't gift things – everyone pays full price.
As my dad always says, the product's got to do the talking. If you build a great product, you're going to attract the right people, and you're going to do well, and that's what we've always put our attention and focus into. For that reason, it's really important for us to have this location, which is prime real estate, and have the workshop above. People come in here to order a pair of shoes, and they can go up the stairs to see them being made. There aren’t many businesses in the world who could do that. It offers a real peek behind the curtain.
There’s lots of history here. We have some amazing reindeer hides from 1786, which were discovered in 1973 in a shipwreck off the coast of Cornwall. At the time, King Charles was the Duke of Cornwall, so he had the rights to anything in those waters. He gave an amateur diving school permission to bring up the hides, and the first pair of shoes we made from them were for him. They have a unique cross-grain texture, and the leather’s as beautiful today as it was in 1786. The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts had two pairs of shoes made from the hides – one that he wore, and one that he put on his mantelpiece at home. He told me that when people came round to his house, he’d show them off as you would art and tell the story. It's a great story.
I believe there are three styles of shoes every man should have in his wardrobe. One is a Churchill style. This is a covered elastic-sided brogue with imitation laces originally made by George Cleverley for the prime minister. These could replace a pair of Oxfords. Then I’d say a pair of our George loafers, which come in many colours. It’s a penny loafer, unlined, super soft, super casual. The third is a Chelsea boot. They’re classics for a reason. You can dress them up, you can dress them down, they’re very functional, and they’re versatile because you can wear them with a pair of jeans or with a suit.
We have just collaborated with Zach on three pieces. I met Zach through friends a few years ago. We’ve been talking about creating something together for a while, but it had to be fun and interesting, and something we don't already offer. We’ve created an amazing, high-end eye mask, a wine carrier and a soft tote. The wine carrier can be used for BYOB, or as a structured piece you could put on your bar at home. The tote is also structured and square, and one you can travel with. It’s a nice three-piece collection that’s different enough for us to make sense, but not unfamiliar in terms of how we make things.
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Photographer: Marco Civale
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