Saxone were a perfectly decent English shoe manufacturer/ retailer. If the shoes are from any period up to the 80's they are probably good to very good quality. After that might be hit or miss, but given they are in a classic style they're more than likely better than most anything you can buy today.

 

Saxone can't really be compared to Clarkes because they weren't really aiming at the same market.

In London at any rate they were considered as low price, which is why they were so popular as htey combined reasonable price with reasonable quality. Good shoes but nothing more, on a par with Dolcis, Freeman Hardy Willis, Barratts and Lilley & Skinner who also had several shops dotted around the Isles and all of whom in fact belonged to the same large footwear concern if I'm not mistaken.

Confriming what Roman said, although with a slight alteration, Saxone are a Scottish shoemaker not English.

 

Saxone can't really be compared to Clarkes because they weren't really aiming at the same market.

In London at any rate they were considered as low price, which is why they were so popular as htey combined reasonable price with reasonable quality. Good shoes but nothing more, on a par with Dolcis, Freeman Hardy Willis, Barratts and Lilley & Skinner who also had several shops dotted around the Isles and all of whom in fact belonged to the same large footwear concern if I'm not mistaken.

Confriming what Roman said, although with a slight alteration, Saxone are a Scottish shoemaker not English.

Wrong in so many ways.

Saxone were part of the British Shoe Corporation but to compare them to Freeman Hardy and Willis means you have no idea about market differentiation on the High Street. Maybe you were too young at the time.

Saxone were the default choice for all leather business shoes mostly in black. Freeman Hardy and Willis were the low end stuff - Woolworth standard - where mums often bought their kids' school shoes. Lilley and Skinner were better, as was Dolcis. Clarks and K shoes were not up to Saxone standards, but they did offer much better fitting for kids' shoes than FHW. Ravel's was the fashion arm of Clarks. Barratts was another low end chain.

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https://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1962/feb/14/private-monopolies

Meanwhile, Mr. Clore is busy strengthening his grip on the boot and shoe trade, encouraged, I should imagine, by the right hon. Gentleman's feeble attitude towards more established monopolies. Sears Holdings, Mr. Clore's holding company, now controls not merely vast property interests which 1328we all know about, but interests in footwear, shipbuilding, hosiery, mining machinery, jewellery, electronics, structural steel, silverware, theatres and car distribution, to name only a few. It is not very clear how greater economy and efficiency are gained by integration of this sort.
But it is to this empire that Mr. Clore's satellite, the British Shoe Corporation, is now seeking to add again its main rival, Saxone-Lilley and Skinner. Already, the British Shoe Corporation is easily our largest shoe manufacturer and retailer, and Saxone comes second.
​

§Sir Cyril Osborne (Louth) Not manufacturer.
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§Mr. Jay These two combined would own 2,000 shoe shops and over 30 factories and would control over 20 per cent. of our shoe supplies.
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§Sir C. Osborne I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman has no wish to mislead the House. The Clore group is by far the biggest distributor of shoes, but not the biggest manufacturer.
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§Mr. Jay I do not wish to mislead the House, but it is a very big manufacturer. TheFinancial Times said that it is the largest manufacturer. However, we need not argue too much about that. If this combine went ahead, it would control over 20 per cent. of our shoe supplies and about half of the supplies sold through multiple shops.
Will this bring a fresh wind of freedom and opportunity into the shoe trade? Obviously, it will limit the choice of the consumer, because I think that the hon. Member for Louth (Sir C. Osborne) will agree that the housewife may imagine that she is choosing between Freeman, Hardy and Willis, Dolcis, Saxone, and Lilley and Skinner, but really it is Mr. Clore all the time. This puts enormous power into the hands of one group, controlled in this case very largely by one man. Yet, in answer to a Question which I put to him, the President of the Board of Trade said that he did not propose to do anything about it.
Since the Chancellor of the Exchequer-and presumably the Chief Secreary to the Treasury who is, for some reason, to reply to the debate tonight-is worried 1329about wages and salaries rising so quickly, it is worth pointing out that another by-product of all these mergers and take-over bids is the building up of vast personal fortunes by capital gains. During the last ten years of Tory freedom, ending with the year of the pay pause, according to the financial Press, Mr. Clore's personal fortune has risen from about £3 million to about £50 million. I wonder whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer can assure us that it will not rise further by more than 2½ per cent. in 1962.
​

 

I've come across a pair of what might be called "vintage" longwing brogues by Saxone, and am just wondering about the quality, or perceived quality of the brand.

A search on here for the word "Saxone" reveals their sole defender to be Kingstonian.

I remember Saxone shoe shops when I was growing up in Ireland. There were several in Dublin. Since then, I've spent many years in the US and so didn't notice their demise.

Were they similar to what Clarks are now?
Or maybe a bit more upmarket?

In one old post here I've found here, Kingstonian compares them to the role Loake fill today. Solid, quality shoes for everyday wear.

Any thoughts?

View attachment 4919

I put a pair of sleek suede bluchers in for a resole with an old Gallic shoe-repairer about 30 yrs ago. He held them up at arm's length, and sighed wistfully .. 'Aaaah- Saxone!'

 

Thank you for all the informative replies.

 

Wrong in so many ways.

Saxone were part of the British Shoe Corporation but to compare them to Freeman Hardy and Willis means you have no idea about market differentiation on the High Street. Maybe you were too young at the time.

Saxone were originally Scottish.
Maybe I was too young (but that depeds on the year) but when I started buying leather shoes in the late 70s, as far as I was concerned Saxone was in the same low to mid range price as almost everything else on offer at all the aforementioned shops.
And so not of real interest to me as I was not buying leather business lace ups then anyway, I was buying quality Italian slip ons and quality Italian and Spanish boots in quality shoe shops.
I didn't have a pair of adult black lace up shoes until I was issued a pair in the RAF in 1980.

 

It was a bit like High Street tailoring chains in the 1960s. Burton Group owned many of those tailoring names.

At the cheap end was Burton itself, plus John Collier previously known as the fifty shilling tailor.

As you moved up the price range there were other brands which were perceived to be better, though the whole operation was run from Hudson Road Mills in Leeds. Gradually purchasing patterns changed. Men bought more RTW and the national MTM tailors disappeared from our towns.

 

Actually, whatever happened to Burton, they just disappeared. Were they bought out or just went bust and shut down?

 

Actually, whatever happened to Burton, they just disappeared. Were they bought out or just went bust and shut down?

I guess this site automatically threw that link to Burton snowboards in there.

Burton, of suit fame, still exist. Sort of anyway.
Nothing like they used to be.
A bit like Topman or something like that.

 

I guess this site automatically threw that link to Burton snowboards in there.

Burton, of suit fame, still exist. Sort of anyway.
Nothing like they used to be.
A bit like Topman or something like that.

Certainly not a link that I intended to appear.

What happened is men stopped buying suits from the MTM tailors and just bought RTW from places like Marks & Spencer. Burton shifted its attention to Topman etc. I think eventually they were bought out too.

 

Just to bring closure to the thread, I ended up buying the Saxone shoes in question, a pair of longwing brogues.
Polished leather of course, but much cheaper and more plastic feeling than the pair of Loake Royal Brogues I'd handled a few weeks ago.
Still, bought on ebay for £10, and sold on for £44, so not too bad.