It all began back in 1918 when Syd James (Grandfather) opened his shop in Exning Road Canning Town. He and his wife Ethel worked 14 hour days repairing the local people’s shoes.

Russell one of five children spent most evenings after school and Saturdays delivering the repaired shoes back to customers around the neighbourhood.

As Russell grew up he began learning how to repair shoes alongside his Father and eventually opened his own shop in 1951 in Fife Road where he continued looking after the local peoples shoes for over 20 years before relocating the business to a workshop in Romford where he concentrated on trade repairs.

David and Andrew followed the family tradition by helping their Father after finishing school every night work through the sacks of shoes that were collected for repair every day.

In 1979 Russell, David and Andrew had an opportunity to buy a shop in Dagenham where Andrew and David jointly run the shop offering the usual shoe repair service but also key cutting.

Within a period of 5 years the company had more than 6 shops trading and continued to expand over the following years.