5 minutes with Sarah Dudley, owner of Northampton’s Bodileys

Popular handmade shoe store Bodileys has been based in Northampton for almost 100 years. After being established in the area in 1919, the store gained popularity in the 1970s as one of the most reliable representatives of the best handmade English shoes worldwide.

The family business, which is now in its fourth generation, is still going strong and today exports 80% of their English made shoes globally. The current owner, Sarah Dudley, continues to use traditional craftsmanship and centuries old techniques when creating the brand’s shoes.

What is it like working in a business that your family has owned for so long?
S: It is a great honour to be the fourth generation family member to be carrying the torch for Bodileys at present.  It comes with advantages that a family company that has been running for coming up to 100 years, our experience in world of the shoe business has been handed down and I have been surrounded by men’s leather shoes all my life.  It also carries great responsibility and pressure to move the company forward successfully.

How successful is the business and do you ship worldwide? 
We ship worldwide on a daily basis to a large number of different companies.

What are your regular customers like and why do people stick by the brand? 
Men tend to be more brand loyal than women, so once we have made a first successful sale to a customer we tend to keep their loyalty.  Customer service and satisfaction is key.  The high quality goodyear welted shoes, if cared for, give great service and therefore after the initial investment give value for money.

What materials are used for the shoes and how long does it take to make them?
Each pair of shoes takes about 8-10 weeks to make.  They are labour intensive and using a team of highly skilled craftsmen there are over 200 separate operations carried out in the making.  The highest quality finest calf leather, suede and country grain is used and the shoes are made on an assortment of leather and rubber soles.

How important is your business to the local area? 
We ship to most countries all over the world, we are a purely on-line business so apart from being in the next county to Northampton where the shoes are made and means we can be at a factory very quickly it is not too important where we are based.

What are you hoping from the future of the business?
We are hoping to develop and grow our own brand of Bodileys shoes, it would be good to open a flagship store in the future.

How important is traditional craftsmanship? 
I feel very strongly that we need to support this age old craft of traditional skills and British heritage, the shoes we sell are some of the finest examples of British shoe making.  Today customers have a greater knowledge and interest in how the product is made, they are weather resistant and designed to be repaired time and time again.