The Cheeky Summer Sneaker Collab We Didn't See Coming
In a surprising new collab that debuts today, prep-heavy American shoe brand Stubbs & Wootton has paired up with legendary bespoke London shoemaker George Cleverley for a brand new capsule collection of sneakers with a humorous twist. The new sneakers are a version of Cleverley’s successful “Jack” sneaker that launched and sold out in just hours on Mr. Porter in 2022. For the new collab, the sneakers come in three summery shades—blue or light tan nubuck, plus white calf leather—each with a discrete Stubbs and Wootton-esque embroidered decoration, including a martini, a negroni, and a screw and the letter U. (U work it out…)
Stubbs & Wootton was launched in Palm Beach in 1993, specializing in casual slippers in unusual patterns and with playful decorative motifs, a world away from the tony (and tiny) Mayfair HQ of Cleverley. But the collab with Cleverley brings out the magic that occurs when casual style and high-end make collide.
As a brand, Cleverley has bespoke shod a litany of greats, from monsters of British music (think Bowie, Ferry, and Watts) and film (Day Lewis, Branagh, Stamp, and Stallone), to the British gentry and even British royalty (including a very recently crowned head). Cleverley’s bespoke operation was founded in 1958 by George Cleverley after he’d already spent 38 years spent working for an equally legendary London shoemaker, Nikolaus Tuscek, where Cleverley made evening pumps for the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) and laceless “blind” brogues for a rather demanding Sir Winston Churchill. In 1991, when Cleverley died, the brand was entrusted to another expert shoemaker named George: George Glasgow. In 2010, his son George Jr. joined as CEO, with George Sr. as chairman.
While preserving the unique bespoke heritage of a brand that has shod such illustrious feet across the generations, Cleverly has more recently added bench-made, ready-to-wear shoes under the George Cleverley label, plus sneakers—an expansion that has made the brand more successful without impeding the cachet of the full bespoke offering. If anything, it has broadened the appeal, which continues to draw in new—and younger—bespoke customers from Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and beyond for its unique hand-made shoes.
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