James Timpson wears Doc Martens all the time, he says – although not right now. Neither am I. The sole of my well-worn pair has split. After hearing stories of similar woes from friends, it felt silly not to ask the man in charge of the country’s most famous shoe repair chain whether the brand is all it once was.
“We do repair them. It’s expensive because we have to buy the soles from them and it’s difficult to get right,” Timpson says. Every pair of the yellow-stitched shoes which get brought to Timpson shops for repair are sent to a prison in Warrington. There, the soles are removed with a hot knife and a new sole attached.
“Then you’ve got to get the stitching right. It’s difficult. The cost of doing it – I
