INTERVIEW
GRUBS BOOTS
In conversation with…
Grubs Boots has an impressive history in the UK footwear industry and the company wants to build on this with its branding in 2024. Chatting to Footwear Today, CEO David Foster explains: “We are the only mainstream boot brand still in both family and British ownership – something we are immensely proud of.”
G
rubs Footwear is launching a new range of kid’s neoprene boots, called Muddies. The 100 per cent waterproof Puddle boots (coming in sizes 2-9) feature shearling fleece lining and Velcro easy access opening. The outer is a 4mm INSUFOAM- ULTRA Neoprene rubber shell with a droplet sole which offers great snow or mud grip and is snow suit compatible. Not only that but the Muddies boots are comfortable in extreme temperatures – anything from -10 to +20 degrees.
Meanwhile, the Icicle boot (in kid’s 6 to adult 5) is perfect for older kids and features 5mm INSUFOAM-ULTRA Neoprene rubber shell, full height rubber protection and performance fleece linings which will protect down to -20 degrees.
The Muddies range comes from the Bolton- based Grubs brand, owned by David and Jan Foster. The husband and wife team created the neoprene revolution in sports and agricultural boots back in 2000. But footwear runs in the Foster family, with eight generations crafting sports footwear since 1776 when David’s great, great, great-grandfather made some of the first cricket shoes.
Fast forward to the early 1900s and the company was supplying cricketers as well as
20 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • OCTOBER 2023
runners from far and wide, and very quickly David’s great-grandfather set up the first athletic shoe factory in Bolton and he teamed up with John Jarvis Broughton (the founder of JJB) making his JJB cricket boots and then football boots.
By 1960 the world-famous Reebok brand was born when a range of new lighter shoe materials were introduced, creating footwear for all kinds of sports industries. David joined Reebok in ’83 and took the company from an obscure running brand to the biggest athletic brand on the planet. One of his designs, Revenge, has now been reinvented as Club Classic, becoming one of the brand’s biggest-selling styles. “We have tweaked the Grubs branding to reflect our British heritage and family ownership,” David Foster tells Footwear Today. “Our walls are covered in photography of our rich history, on which we continue to build. “My wife Jan is Managing Director of Grubs in the UK, my daughter Abi is Sales Manager for the north of the UK and handles many of our key accounts, and my youngest, Beth, heads up online sales and social media. For my part, I design and product manage the whole line alongside the rest of the team. I also run international sales and business development for our brands.”
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