WORDS NOAH JOHNSON

NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT ANDREW RIETH

P500 PLAINTOE PHOTOGRAPHY ERIC WONG

Bee
Original:
Padmore
& Barnes

GOT TO HAVE STYLE AND LEARN TO BE ORIGINAL. A QUOTE

THAT HAS BEEN STUCK IN MY BRAIN SINCE I WAS A KID: KRS
ONE MY PHILOSOPHY. A BIG PART OF OUR LIFESTYLE IS TO
PLAY YOUR PART CREATIVELY THIS TAKES STYLE. WHEN
YOU HAVE A VOICE AND AN AUDIENCE YOU CAN TRIGGER
OFF ORIGINALITY. GHOSTFACE AND WU-TANG BROUGHT
THIS PARTICULAR PRODUCT TO A MAIN STREAM LEVEL,
VOUCHED FOR IT AND STAMPED IT WITH THEIR APPROVAL.
THIS TYPE OF BRANDING IS PIRATING THEY WERE USING
SOMEONE ELSES PRODUCT BUT IT IS ALSO ACCESSIBLE TO
THE MASSES. THIS CREATES THE IDENTITY OF THE CULTURE
YOU ARE PREACHING. AT THE SAME TIME I CALL THIS TRENDENDING SINCE THE SECRET IS OUT THE BAG AND ON THE FOOT.
A LOT OF CITY DWELLERS AND NATIVE NEW YORKERS WILL
PULL BACK ONCE IT REACHES A WIDE AUDIENCE IT IS THEIR
NATURE TO BE ON TOP AND FIRST. THIS IS ALRIGHT, BECAUSE
ONCE THE SMOKE CLEARS THE STYLE AND STUDY MASTER
WILL STAND BY THE PRODUCT AND KEEP EVOLVING CLASSIC
STYLES IN MODERN DAY FASHION. AARON BONDAROFF

A8

SNEEZE 2008 AUGUST&SEPTEMBER NO2

by NOAH JOHNSON
They are in a way the anti-sneaker and are today as they
have always been: sensible shoes, casual shoes. Comfortable,
understated, and free of extraneous embellishments. No logos,
design ourishes, technological advancements, just sheer
comfort and style. Designed for walking, not fashion, not
sport, not breaking necks. The original Wallabees, hand-made
in Ireland by Padmore & Barnes, remain untouchable classics.
Different people will tell you different things, but Frank
Bryan, general manager and director for Padmore & Barnes in
Ireland, is the most concise with his answer when he says quite
simply, We made the best shoes in the world.
The original Wallabee was designed after a German shoe
made by a company called Viking. In 1967, Padmore &
Barnes, under the ownership of Clarks, began to produce their
own version of the shoes, then called Grasshoppers. When
the shoes were launched in the U.S., Paddy Roberts, then
the managing director and current owner of P&B, realized
that the Grasshopper brand name was already registered and
was therefore off limits. He came up with the name Wallabee
(Wallaby was also a registered name at the time) and the rest
is history. From 1967 onwards Padmore & Barnes exported to
29 countries and made 25,000 pairs per week. In addition to
the original, many different Wallabee styles were created by
the in-house design team at P&B. The P500 Plaintoe, Weaver,
Natalie, Side-Lace, and other variations of the crepe-soled
original Wallabee were produced. All classics.
For twenty years Clarks had their Wallabees exclusively
produced by P&B in Ireland, until Clarks felt that going
forward, the production of footwear in the UK would not be
nancially viable. Commercially the decision by Clarks to
produce their Wallabee in China was correct, states Bryan.
[P&B] could not have coped with the production levels that
were required...and our costs were a lot higher than China.
P&B negotiated a buyout from Clarks along with a licensing
agreement for the use of the Clarks Wallabee brand from 1987
to 1997 an agreement that excluded all of North America.
Clarks subsequently moved all Wallabee production to China
and Vietnam, while Wallabees for the rest of the world were
still produced in Ireland under the Clarks name by P&B.
At this point, consumers in Japan, Europe and the UK
continued to enjoy the quality, comfort and style of handmade
Irish Wallabees from Padmore & Barnes, while North American
customers were shipped the new and modied versions made
in China. The Chinese production of the Wallabee was really
a copy and very little effort was made to recreate the original
product, says Bryan. The last shape was wrong and the
tting was wrong. The success of the original Wallabee was
very much about the shape and the t. For example, the
toebox on Irish Wallabees has a lower prole and follows
more closely the shape of your foot. According to Bryan, Irish
craftsmanship has been unsurpassed when it came to producing
this style. P&B trained people all over Ireland to hand stitch
the uppers of their shoes. They sent out trucks to towns across
the country theyd distribute unstitched leathers and pick
up the nished ones. Many families would sit watching TV
at night and earn money from hand stitching, says Bryan.
In 1997 when their licensing agreement expired, P&B was
able to continue on without the Clarks Wallabee name, releasing

shoes under their in-house Erlandia and Padmore & Barnes

brand names in addition to numerous collaborative projects with
other brands and retailers. Our strong customer base in Japan
decided that they did not want Chinese made shoes and wanted
the Irish made shoes, says Bryan. At this point I went on a
quick sale mission to Japan. There Padmore & Barnes made
partnerships with companies such as United Arrows, Watanabe
& Co., Highbridge and SOMH, who specically wanted their
shoes made by Padmore & Barnes in Ireland. Based on our
success in Japan, a lot of international shoe buyers and range
builders were keeping an eye on what was happening, says
Bryan. Since production of Clarks Wallabees moved wholesale
to Asia, P&B remained the only place to go for the handcrafted
originals, and brands like Paul Smith and Supreme began to
contact P&B with requests to make authentic original Wallabee
styles for them.
I always loved and wore Clarks, but only the original ones
that were handmade in the UK, says James Jebbia, founder of
Supreme. The shape and quality changed once they switched
production to China. All kinds of cool people in New York wore
them, young to old, nerds, skaters, rappers, teachers, dentists,
etc. They were comfortable, looked fresh and were of great
quality. To me, the original Wallabees and desert boots are
classic staples, they never go out of style, similar to a Chuck
Taylor or a Vans Era. Once they started making them in China
you could no longer nd the good original ones. It was on a trip
to Tokyo that I found some older ones with a Padmore & Barnes
label. When I got back home I simply contacted them to see if
they would be down to do some styles for [Supreme]. Jebbia
wanted his shoes made using the original lasts and same high
quality materials that Padmore & Barnes were known for.
We were approached by James from Supreme in 2000
and he traveled from the U.S. to GDS [shoe trade show] in
Dsseldorf for a meeting, recalls Bryan. James was wearing
original Wallabees. He knew what he wanted and we had it.
Padmore & Barnes supplied various original Wallabee styles
to Supreme including P500 Plaintoes and a new style created
for Supreme called the M345 Sahara Boot, in a variety of
suede and leather treatments. They sold for around $150 a
pair, about 50% more than the Chinese production shoes, a
price many customers in the U.S. werent willing to pay at that
time. What people didnt realize though was that the original
Wallabees were always pretty expensive. Being hand-made
and using great quality materials doesnt come that cheap,
says Jebbia. So, even in the 80s they were around $150 a
pair. People who knew what was up appreciated them though,
so that was cool.
Aaron Bondaroff, longtime Supreme employee, former
aNYthing store founder, and current head of Off Bowery
Productions in New York chimes in. At this time Supreme was
one of the only brands homegrown from the streets that
was pushing products and independent styles. Supreme was
and has been an educational tool for start-up companies and
DIY movements with a visionary like James and a crew of
stylemasters, skaters and hustlers. It was a perfect match of
original products and unforced placement. People who knew
P&B were stoked and got their shoes and extra pairs to store.
Others who just respected Supreme and was drawn to the
simple style of it purchased them and came back weeks after

ranting about how amazing and comfortable they were and

would buy another pair. There wasnt that many people at this
time that were such fanatics of Supreme and had knowledge
of P&B. People didnt catch on till the factory shut and the 3
styles came out with Supreme.
With their success in Japan and the association with Supreme,
P&B had entered into an area outside their traditional market.
We went to visit a Supreme store in Tokyo and we were
blown away by the reaction to us and our product, Bryan
said. I believe at this point we realized that we were in a new
ball game.
The Supreme partnership introduced many people stateside
to P&B. Bondaroff recalls the rst release of the shoes in New
York, It was cool to see all these skaters, dirt bags, late night
party-goers and this small creative scene rocking shoes all of
the sudden. We went from dirty skate kicks during the day with
holes and torn spots from shredding all day, to slipping into the
shoes around 7pm for the second half of the day the night
shift. Thanks to Supreme, New Yorks skateboarders had a
shoe that became part of their identity. Pack of ten maniacs
strolling the city, he added, proling and causing ruckus
and all wearing crispy shoes, we would turn heads on the
street daily.
Despite a growing fan base and requests for collaboration
from retailers around the world, P&B left a gaping void in the
legit casual shoe market when it stopped manufacturing shoes
in 2003. The decision to close the production unit in Kilkenny
was forced upon us by dwindling sales. We are all shoe men
rst, and this decision was one of the toughest business
decisions we ever had to make, Bryan recalls. Since that time,
the company has continued on, but only in name, as a retail
department store in Kilkenny, Ireland.
People seeking pairs of the originals in recent years have
had to resort to searching online auction sites. However,
P&Bs clean white boxes have made some unexpected reappearances. Union, Stussy and Red Five SF eventually sold
out of the P&B-made Killa Shoe Co. stock they had from
2001. Supreme made their backstock of P&Bs available in
early 2007 at their rst ever warehouse sale in New York and
at the aNYthing Gangstore in fall 2006. When I opened my
shop [aNYthing], Supreme still had backstock, and I wanted
something from this brand...James always liked this product
and knew at this time I had a strong art based and weirdo
crowd that would circulate around our projects and appreciate
this product. We re-released them at my shop showcasing all
three styles together. There werent many shoes left, but they
were highly appreciated by the scene, Bondaroff said. I still
see people wearing them and most of these shoes are worn
out and dirty, but when people pull them out they always look
fresh and I turn my head.
For those longing to see Padmore & Barnes return to
shoemaking, there is some solace in the fact that the old
P&B plant that made the original Wallabees is still intact in
Kilkenny, Ireland. But these days its the skills needed to make
the shoe that are lacking. We have looked at going back into
manufacturing, but we have been unable to nd a partner
factory who could manufacture to our standards, Bryan said.
The search continues!
noah@sneezemag.com

FUNNY HOW THE TABLES TURN. AS WE GET OLDER, WE

CARRY OURSELVES A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT. THERE WILL
ALWAYS BE A DEMAND FOR A SIMPLE AND WELL MADE
SHOE THAT TRANSLATES ON THE STREETS AND CAN BE
WORN BY THE STREETS. IT REMINDS ME OF THE MALE
VERSION OF THE EASY SPIRIT LADY SHOES FROM A WHILE
BACK. THEIR MOTTO WAS LOOKS LIKE A PUMP FITS LIKE
A SNEAKER. AARON BONDAROFF
Translation by AYA KOURA

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SNEEZE 2008 AUGUST&SEPTEMBER NO2

A9