Tredair

Tredair is a brand of British-made footwear produced by White & Co., a shoe design company in Northamptonshire. The company ran factories from 1890 to 2003 making classic men's footwear, sports footwear, cricketing shoes, utility footwear to government specification during the early 1940s, a military contract for the Australian Army, and safety footwear employing significant numbers of people at White's Shoe Works in New Street Daventry, then in the village of Earl's Barton at a 1960s ex-Barker's factory off Station Road. Until 1983, when the Dr Martens brand changed ownership, White & Co shared the work of producing Dr. Martens boots with companies including George Cox, NPS, GB Britton and Sons, Hawkins of Northampton, and near-neighbours WJ Brookes. For a short time from then until the contract expired they produced boots labelled "Dr Martens Tredair", and then "Tredair" using their own patented foam-injection system to make a bouncier mid-sole than the traditionalfelt. They filed patent 2292878B listing Harry Gee of Leicester as inventor. In 1990 White & Company (Earls Barton} Ltd. was awarded a Queens Award for Export Achievement after exporting 70% of production including Gripfast shoes, made by the same company and mainstream goodyear-welted styles.

The period 1979 to 2009 was a period of monetarist economic policy in the UK, with the exchange rate hiked-up in order to cheapen imports and reduce inflation. Reverse policies were later followed in China in the 2000s. Both exchange-rate policies effected manufacturers and exporters far more than service industries and led to rapid shrinking and closures, followed decades later by interest in re-balancing the UK economy

In 2003 the company adopted a felt and foam combination for their mid soles, and closed the Earl's Barton factory and company shell to move production to NPS, a former cooperative, which continues to make shoes in the UK town of Woolaston. Since Dr. Martens moved their production to China in 2003, British manufacturers like Tredair and Solovair have sold at a premium. Current owners of the DM brand have re-introduced a "made in England" range made at their company base, a few hundred yards away from the NPS factory where production began.

External links

White and Co's Tredair website Photos and survey of the Station Road factory before demolition for a housing development.