Our story.

Arthur Sleep is started by two friends with a simple, extravagant idea: a shoe that exists for one person on earth. So few traditional shoemakers remain that craftsmen come out of retirement to make our first orders.

Our first campaign: shoes and fedoras, handmade in England.

Pitti Uomo, the world’s most important platform for men’s fashion, invites us to exhibit in Florence. Stockists follow in London, Japan, Turkey, Sweden and Switzerland.

We begin building our own workshop in Walthamstow, in east London’s Lea Valley. We source the machines, design new processes, train a small team, and stop advertising altogether until every pair can be made on time and to standard.

The valley has made things for centuries. A short walk away, Frederick Bremer built the first British car with a petrol engine, and A V Roe made the first flight in an all-British aeroplane.

Our first shop opens at 7–8 Savile Row, with a working shoe factory in the basement. Clients are scanned upstairs and watch their pair being made below: digital foot scanning, lasts made in minutes, and the hands of our makers.

The Times calls it "the most technologically advanced atelier on Savile Row". We make a commission for the Royal Household, show at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2022, and welcome the press into the workshop.

A shop on a mews off Mount Street, with a red awning, a bench outside and a coffee for anyone who sits on it. Private appointments, the shop closed for you, parking at the door.

Our own shoe factory, in a restored Art Deco building of 1931. Makers who came out of retirement train the next ones.

Trunk shows in New York and Atlanta. Register interest in our next visit to America.