Original subtitles

♪ MTV ♪

- If you're anything like the average British man,

then you own nine pairs of shoes.

- And the average British woman? 17 pairs.

We love our shoes.

But have you ever considered

what it takes to make a pair of shoes from scratch?

[upbeat music]

We've come to this remote stretch

of the Cumbrian coast to find out.

This is the largest sport shoe factory in the UK

and they've let us inside.

I'm Gregg Wallace.

I made this shoe right from the very beginning.

- And tonight I'm gonna show you

how this factory produces over 3 1/2 thousand pairs of trainers

every single day.

Heel first, upside down.

Whoa! Whoa! Goodbye, shoe.

- They'll get through over 140 miles of cotton thread.

Yes!

- And sew over 32 million individual stitches.

I broke it.

- I'll be making my very own pair of trainers

on a human production line

where mistakes can be costly.

How many shoes behind are we now?

- About 40. - Useless!

I'm Cherry Healy

and I'll help one of the country's

largest leather tanneries

process thousands of hides for the nation's shoes.

Watch out! Coming in!

- And see how one company painstakingly turns

37,000 square meters of satin

into a quarter of a million ballet shoes every year,

some of which will only last for one performance.

And historian Ruth Goodman

traces the surprising origins of the humble trainer

to the back streets of Bolton.

Reebok?

Reebok is British?

1.4 million shoes come out of this factory every year,

heading to shoe shops all over the world.

- Tonight, we'll show you the painstaking work

that goes into every single one.

- Welcome to "Inside The Factory."

[upbeat music]

[machines whirring]

[letters thudding]

[upbeat music]

- This is the New Balance trainer factory in Flimby,

Cumbria, on the edge of the Lake District.

When they opened their first factory in 1982,

they had a reputation for making a performance running shoe.

Today, they're also known for producing a fashionable

and colorful range of trainer.

This 6,000 square meter factory has about 279 people

working hard to meet global demand.

Tonight, I'm going to show you how,

in just 24 hours,

they can make about 3 1/2 thousand pairs of shoes.

- They make here over 30 different styles.

This is one of their biggest sellers

and it goes through 35 different pairs of hands.

Well, I want to make that 36 pairs of hands.

[upbeat music]

- This is the 576 classic leather trainer.

They've be making it for nearly 30 years.

It's made from 27 individual pieces

that all fit together in a specific order

to form the upper, heel, toe and sole.

And I've got the mammoth challenge

of learning how to fit them all together

to make my very own pair of shoes.

My journey starts here, in Material Intake.

This is where they keep all the raw materials

for shoemaking, from leather to polyester.

I'm with quality controller Jim Fox,

collecting everything I'll need to make my shoes.

We're starting with foam for the shoe's padding.

- Okay, Gregg, so we are going to pick up the foam.

Just rip off one bit?

- No, we need the full, what we call the block--

- All of this? - All of that.

- Don't be mad, Jim! - It's very light.

- This sheet will make over 300 trainers.

[upbeat music]

And just 35 minutes from now,

this foam will form just one part of my finished shoe.

- We are then going to pick up the toe puff material.

A bit of toe puff.

- Next up is three-mil black polyester,

one of eight different textiles we'll need.

- Now, this is cut precisely, so handle it with care.

Yes.

[upbeat music]

- Modern synthetic materials are key

to making many of our modern trainers.

However, the majority of our shoes

are made from a material that we've used

for thousands of years.

Leather.

- New Balance get their leather from meter' tannery in Somerset.

- Every pair of leather shoes you've ever worn

started life like this.

Rawhide.

♪ Rollin', rollin, rollin' ♪

♪ Though the streams are swollen ♪

- The hides they use here are a by-product

of the beef industry

and almost all of them come from the UK.

They're treated off-site using chromium sulfate,

a chemical that stabilizes the protein of the skin

to stop it rotting.

After that, they're sent here for processing.

Inside each of these huge steel drums are 200 hides.

They're mixed with dye and a top-secret blend

of chemicals that color and condition the leather.

♪ Rawhide ♪

- They might look like giant washing machines,

but inside these drums is some fairly complex science.

Everything about the leather on your trainers,

the precise color, the durability,

how waterproof they are,

even how flexible they are when you walk,

comes down to the 24 hours they spend in these drums.

[water splashing]

- Now they've been Colored and conditioned,

the hides need to be processed,

so I'm taking to the tannery floor

to join leather operative Paul Gee.

- Hello, I'm geared up and ready to work.

- Hello. - What happens next?

- We have to physically put the skins onto that horse.

- Go nice and start-- - Oh, it weighs a ton!

- That's a light one? - That's really light.

That weighs a ton!

Okay, watch out, coming in.

[upbeat music]

- Hides are natural products, so it varies in thickness,

particularly at the rump and the neck.

Wow!

- But this machine uses super-sharp blades

to a consistent 1 1/2 millimeter throughout.

- Come with me. - Okay.

Whoa!

Now an even thickness.

Wow!

Whee!

- The leather gets treated with polyurethane

to help it wear well,

along with a final touch of color.

Sales director Mike Dodd

is showing me the spraying machine

that does it.

- This is the finishing operation.

We spray the top of the leather to give it its final color

and give it those final protective coats.

There's also a level of scuff resistance

that gives us the confidence

that this is gonna make a nice piece of robust footwear.

Here we go.

Way hey! Oh, it's beautiful!

- Okay, watch your head behind you.

- Oh! - Get it on the pole.

- And this is where we earn our corn.

Oh.

Whoa!

Got it, got it, got it.

- The finished leather spends an hour drying on the sky train

before it's finally checked over and graded.

- There's no substitute for a visual inspection

of where the scratches are, where the scars are,

where there's damage on the hide.

And this is classic for British cattle,

scratches from barbed wire.

As long as we get barbed wire in the UK

and the cattle occasionally get an itchy bum,

so we have to account for that in the grading.

- Someone had a very scratchy bum.

- Scratches will show on a finished shoe, but,

provided there aren't too many,

the shoemakers can work around them.

So, this leather makes the grade

and it's ready for packing.

- There's over 50,000 square feet of leather

coming through this factory every day.

It's been sent all over the world,

but this is on its way to the Cumbrian coast,

where its journey to become a pair of trainers

is just getting started.

[machines whirring]

[upbeat music]

- Back at the factory in Flimby,

I've spent the last four minutes

collecting the raw materials for my shoes.

And now I'm ready for the latest delivery of leather.

Whoa! Whoa!

Lovely! Thank you very much.

Oh, that is very attractive.

- The leather from Somerset will be used for 91%

of the exterior of my trainer.

First stop, cutting.

This shoe has eight unique leather shapes

and chief cutter Billy Edgar is the man to show me

how you make them.

- Billy, I'm Gregg. - Hello there.

Pleased to meet you.

- You are master leather cutter?

- Yeah, but you're coming into my kitchen today,

so let's have a pinny on, please.

- All right. - All right.

- Well, that's not a bad bit of kit, that, Billy.

- I've been doing this job since I left school in '66.

You've been doing this since 1966?

- '66. - England won the World Cup,

- Billy started cutting leather.

- By carefully choosing where he places the templates,

Billy can get eight pairs of shoes

out of one piece of leather with hardly any wastage,

known as the skeleton.

- I want you to be cutting like this.

That's your skeleton.

- I'll never do it. - You will.

I won't!

- The skeleton offcuts is thrown away,

so every cut has to count.

- Whoa, you are right on the edge.

- That's all right, don't worry.

You just want it to come away like that.

- All right. - You can do that, can't you?

I think I can.

Hey!

Time for me to have a go.

All right, we're all right.

- Yeah? - Yeah, go for it.

- And it's harder than it looks.

[bright music]

- Oh, Billy, look at that! Yes!

- Billy will have cut out 23 pieces

in the time it's taken me to cut out four,

and I've wasted a lot of leather.

- My skeleton's a lot fatter than yours.

- If I cut leather like that all year,

I'd cost the company nearly 1/2 million pounds

in wasted material.

- That's been my favorite bit so far.

Have a good day. Cheers, Bill.

You all right, darling?

I've cut my leather,

now I need the synthetic parts for my shoe.

Flip over like that.

- One machine cuts the black polyester

six sheets at a time.

Another cuts the foam.

And, together, they'll form

the soft cushioning in my trainer.

I've now got all the parts I'll need to assemble my shoe.

- These shoes are what the industry knows

as lifestyle shoes.

They share a lot of the same design

and technology

as high-performance running shoes,

but they're basically a fashion item.

So, when were they invented and why?

- Historian Ruth Goodman is finding out.

[gentle music]

The cobbled streets of Bolton

may seem like an unlikely birthplace

for the global phenomenon that is the trainer.

But David Foster's family

believe they kicked off the whole thing.

- The guy that started it all, really, is my great-grandfather,

pictured here, Joe Foster.

And he invented his running spike back in 1895

above his father's sweet shop, here in Bolton.

- Incredibly, runners would run in their regular leather shoes

before Joe Foster's invention.

But he wanted to give runners better traction on the track

and turned to the hobnailed cricket boots for inspiration.

- So he took this concept and refined it

and came up with this shoe.

You can see the studs have grown into ginormous spikes,

which give you much better traction on a cinder track.

- I tell you what this reminds me of.

It looks just like a ballet shoe.

- It's actually constructed in exactly the same way.

A ballet shoe with spikes!

As far as an athletic shoe is concerned, I mean,

this was quite revolutionary.

Certainly was.

This just changed the whole face of running.

[triumphant music]

- In 1904, Alf Shrubb broke three different distance

world records in a single race

wearing Foster's running pumps.

Overnight, Joe Foster's shoes became world-famous,

but the best was yet to come.

In 1924, two British stars,

Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell,

both took to the track at the Paris Olympics,

the Games made famous by the film "Chariots Of Fire."

[triumphant inspirational music]

- Liddell won gold in the 400 meters

and Abrahams was victorious in the 100 meter sprint,

both wearing Foster & Sons running spikes.

The company went from strength to strength,

producing a range of sports shoes.

But in 1958, feeling they'd outgrown the family business,

two of the Foster sons split off

to form a brand-new company.

- My father and uncle, they'd just had enough

and they decided they were gonna go their own way.

So they upped sticks and moved from Bolton to Bury

and founded Reebok.

Reebok?

Yeah, my dad had won

a South African dictionary

in a local race.

What a bizarre thing to win!

- They looked through this dictionary

and they came up with Reebok,

a South African gazelle.

- What did they do with this new firm?

- Literally, they took the Foster's tradition

and then span it out using new materials

and new technologies.

I started working for my dad in 1983,

just as we began to get into a newfangled fitness sport

in the US called aerobics.

And at that point, Reebok just went mental.

[upbeat music]

Women powered the demand

for the new freestyle trainers used in gym classes.

Reebok sales ballooned from $1 million in 1980

to $1 billion in 1986.

- Young girls started to wear this on the street.

So, all of a sudden, we got into color

and we became a fashion brand.

It was an incredible time

and I was very proud to be part of it.

[gentle music]

- Today, it's the retro '80s inspired

Reebok Classic range that remains the biggest seller.

- Today this little Union Jack is a reminder

of 18-year-old Joe Foster,

who pioneered the running pump more than 100 years ago,

working over his father's sweet shop in Bolton.

[gentle music]

[machines whirring]

[upbeat music]

Back at the factory,

I'm 13 minutes into making my very own pair

of leather sports shoes.

So far, I've cut the parts I'll need to assemble the shoe.

Now it's time to start putting them all together,

so I'm heading to Pre-Fit to meet Joanne Murphy.

- Joanne, I've got to bring some bits to you.

What do you do here?

- I do the tips and the foxings.

- What, and add bits to it? - Yeah.

- Would you do that for me? - Yep.

- The tips and foxings are the pieces of leather

covering the toe and heel of the shoe.

These parts get put under a lot of stress

by the wearer's foot,

so they need to be strengthened.

- You're putting the reinforced plastic bits in, aren't you?

- Yeah. - Is it heat that sticks them?

Yeah, it's heat.

So heat will stick that down and it will come out quite hot.

This is a lot like baking.

- Ah, yeah! [laughs]

- Now my leather's been reinforced with plastic,

I'm heading to Embroidery.

[upbeat music]

- This is where a design gets stitched

into the back of my shoe.

This industrial sewing machine

can embroider up to 15 pieces at a time

and it's overseen by Jackie Hebson.

Jackie!

What's going in here, a Union Jack?

Yeah.

Despite their small size,

it will take 21 meters of cotton and 3,300 stitches

to sew each tiny flag.

- Does it sound like a machine gun to you?

Yes!

Why has it stopped?

- 'Cause two lights is flashing.

So the cottons have jumped out of the needle,

so we would have to thread it up.

- I'm not going anywhere near that needle.

It won't come down.

- It will! - It won't.

- The machine might be hi-tech,

but it still takes a human's hand-eye eye coordination

to re-thread the needle.

Pull it down.

- This is precision engineering.

- Yes! - Yes!

I'll start it.

- We did it. - Yep.

- Proper job! I love these. - Yeah!

- I'm finally ready to assemble the different parts of my shoe,

so I'm heading to Auto-Stitch.

[upbeat music]

- This is where I'll make the top part of my shoe,

called the upper.

It's made from parts that vary in strength,

thickness and texture to form the finished design.

Hello.

- It's Susan Brown's job to place the different parts

of the shoe on a template in the correct order

before a machine automatically stitches them together.

- Can you lay that stuff down in the speed that

that takes to stitch?

- Yeah. - That's about 10 seconds.

Yeah.

- My word, how many of these are you knocking out a minute?

About 20 a minute?

You've got to do 24 shoes

in 15 minutes.

- You've got to do 24 shoes in 15 minutes?

Yeah, yeah.

How many times have you

stitched your hand to the machine?

Never.

- I would never be able to do it that quick.

[dramatic music]

- Time to find out if I've got what it takes

to build a shoe in 37 seconds.

- Stand back, Susan, stand back.

Get me a vamp, please.

Right foot vamp.

- Give me collar plugs. - There you are.

- On that side. - Like that?

- Make sure it lines up with the dolly holes.

- Lines up the what? - The dolly holes.

With all them holes.

- Is that not bad? - No, you're doing well.

- And then I twist the knobs to shut it up.

- Well done, you can have a job.

- Are you pleased with me? - Yeah.

Susan might be impressed,

but I'm only halfway done.

I've now got more layers to add with Charlene Steele

at the next auto-stitch station.

- You fit your vamps onto the power,

then you fit your apron.

And you tip.

Then you place your two Ns on, your Ns go to the outside.

[upbeat music]

- This next part is one of the quickest.

The final step for the upper part of my trainer

is to punch holes for the laces.

We've got lace holes.

That, for the first time, now looks like a shoe.

[upbeat music]

Cordwainers College

is part of the London College of Fashion.

Over the last 129 years,

it's been turning out

some of the best shoe designers in the country.

- Here, students learn to design

and make their shoes all under one roof

and this is where Jimmy Choo learned his trade.

[upbeat music]

- A three-year design course teaches them

how to turn creative ideas into practical,

commercial products.

The students usually get 12 weeks

to complete each project, but they've offered to help me

make the shoe of my dreams in just one day.

- This is such a treat, this really is.

I can't believe you're gonna help me design a shoe.

[bright music]

- Student Ashley Chambers designed the court shoe.

It has a continuous top edge and simple high heel

and it's one of the easiest designs

to manufacture.

The next step is to pick my materials

and I've been let loose in the college vaults.

Oh, it's like Aladdin's cave!

- A pair of women's shoes can sell

for tens or thousands of pounds,

and that depends on the complexity of the design,

the quality of materials

and the reputation of the designer.

But before I can build my shoe,

I need to choose an appropriate last.

Lecturer Ian Gough explains.

- So, a last is the foundation on which you build the shoe?

That's correct, yeah.

There's all sorts of different shapes, heel heights.

Basically, the shoe is constructed on the last,

that's what gives it its shape and its form.

So, a size seven in a shape that looks similar

to what we've designed is this.

- It's got-- - It's called Sarah.

- That's right. - Why is it called Sarah?

- So all the lasts have an identification

name or number.

It's just an industry standard

so that when you produce a design spec,

and you send that to the factory,

they know exactly what shape you want to make your shoes on.

[dramatic music]

- Every one of the thousands of different designs

would have started life as a prototype

built on a last like this one.

We're using my Sarah last to make a paper template

to cut the leather for the upper part of the shoe.

While some of the other students are getting

to work on the straps and accessories,

a thermoplastic stiffener is slipped between the lining

and the leather to make sure the shoe keeps its shape,

then it's heated and molded on a machine.

Oh, wow! Oh, look!

- You can see-- - Oh my gosh!

- It's really starting to take shape.

Yes.

- Next, we are going to add the heels.

- It's funny 'cause when they are away from the shoe,

they just don't look very strong.

Is that really gonna hold my weight?

Yes, they will,

because they've got metal, so they are reinforced.

- Because the point of the heel is so small,

to stop them from breaking,

the heels have to be nailed into the shoes base.

Whoa!

- It's taken seven of us all day to make my shoes

and now it's the moment of truth.

[upbeat music]

- Look what we made! - Woo hoo!

- Rio Rave they most certainly are.

They're really good, aren't they?

Well done, you!

[audience applauding]

I had absolutely no idea

how much time and effort it takes

to make a pair of designer shoes.

- Design and style is also key here

at the trainer factory in Cumbria.

Development manager Chris Hodgson

reveals some quirky British influences.

- The Kings Head, The Royal Oak, The Red Lion.

Are they pubs?

- They're the three most popular pub names in England.

- You made shoes designed around pubs.

- You've got a Chesterfield settee leather on the front.

You've got a Paisley wallpaper, and if you look inside it,

you've got a stone floor

with a beer glass stain on the top.

You have!

You've got a stone floor.

- Correct. - On the inside.

- When you started here making running shoes,

did you ever think you would eventually be asked

to make a shoe that looked like a pub?

- I've worn plenty of shoes in the pub,

but I've never been asked to make one that looks like one.

[upbeat music]

It's been 22 minutes

since I started making my leather trainers

and so far I've made the upper part of the shoe.

Now I'm heading to Manual Stitch,

where I'll transform my upper from flat to 3-D.

Jean Fox is one of eight ladies

whose skill with a sewing machine

is essential for this job.

- This is the start of making it look like a shoe.

So you put that round the machine like that

and you bring the backs together.

Then you cut the tape and you turn it around.

Right, step back, madam.

Let me show you how it's done.

Go on, Gregg, guide it along,

so you're keeping these together.

- Oh, I've got you. - Yeah. Now go

[Gregg yelps]

Slow, slow.

I've broke it.

It's now just wrapping like a coil of rope around itself.

You've got that stuck.

- How many shoes behind are we now?

- A lot. - About 40.

Useless!

- Thankfully, Jean's able to rescue my botched upper.

- Jean, I'm sorry, I'm out of here.

- Thanks for your effort. - Right, see you.

- My mistakes are holding up the production line

and I've put them 40 shoes behind their target.

Time to stop mucking about

and get serious about making my shoes.

Next person to babysit me is Marion Hyde.

- Hello, darling. Pleased to meet you.

- Now, can you tell me how we now turn these

into proper shoes?

First operation

is what we call on this shoe backtab and collar.

- It's called what? - Backtab.

And collar?

Isn't that where they remove the hairs from your

- No, backtab, not waxing. Backtab.

- Got you, got you. - Right.

- The backtab and collar provides support

to your ankle and we need to stitch them

to the upper part of my shoe.

Safety first, Gregg.

Need to tie up my hair, first stage.

Right, on this machine

it can be very dangerous, watch fingers.

Pinkies could disappear.

- Right? - What!

Be very careful.

Just keep your fingers well away.

Come close to the edge with that needle.

Slowly does it.

Right, follow the curve of the shoe.

Move your shoe around.

- Get off, get off, get off! - Now grab your shoe!

That's it, stop. Lift your foot.

Turn around. Pull it out.

Put your threads.

- Luckily, I didn't mess this one up,

or I'd have put them

even further behind their target.

- I tell you what, I found all that very, very stressful.

I held my breath through all of that.

Did you? Why?

'Cause you did really well on that bit.

Thank you.

- You've got a good teacher, you see.

That isn't just the machine,

that's human skill with a machine.

- It is, correct. Yeah. - Is that all right?

- That's a lot better. Not 100%, but a lot better.

Can I have a sit down now?

Not break time yet.

[dramatic music]

- At the trainer factory in Cumbria,

so far, I've cut my leather pieces,

reinforced and embroidered them and stitched them together

to form the shoe upper.

And it's only taken 25 minutes.

The next stage in Manual Stitch

is where my upper will get cushioning sewn inside.

- Whoa, that's the fastest thing I've ever seen!

Insides stitched.

Tongue cushioned.

- You look like you might be a bit of a wiz.

That's precision, isn't it?

Heel padded.

So I've got to hold down the tongue

and then slide my lever under.

Don't let go of your tongue.

I won't let go of my tongue.

- All attached. My upper is now complete.

- No-one who bought these shoes would imagine for a moment,

I'm telling you,

that they have been hand-stitched

by Charlene, Jean, Gillian, Lucy,

Susan, Claire and Liz.

- And not forgetting Marion. - Yes.

- Correct. - No-one.

I know. What an operation!

- I'm leaving this bit of ladies,

to put them in there.

We are going to a very blokey looking bit, aren't we?

[upbeat music]

- The section I'm heading to is overseen

by Jim Fox and his team and it's called Molding.

Here, my shoes come out of an oven

at 110 degrees Celsius.

- Jim, why are my shoes in this oven?

- We need them to be malleable so they mold around the last.

What's a last?

- It's a foot mold, what we make the shoe on.

Right, that's a last.

- That's hot and steaming in there

because we need the leather to be pliable--

So we can stretch it over the shape of the shoe?

- Correct. - Can I have a go, Jim?

- You can have a go. Put it onto the peg.

Right, take the upper from the--

[Gregg yelps]

It's really hot, yes.

You've got a shoehorn to help you.

- I don't need a shoehorn. I'm as strong as an ox.

- Strong as an ox. - Now, where does this go?

- That goes on underneath the sock.

- And you've got to do this while the shoe is hot

so that the leather will stretch?

That's it.

Now you're just going to pass this across to Steven.

- Steven, show me what to do. - Hello, there.

- The pincers are getting hold of the leather,

feed it into the other pincers and pull down.

He leaves hot melted glue underneath

and he closes the uppers around the last.

When it comes out of that after 10 seconds,

you will see what we call a lasted edge.

Like so.

[upbeat music] [Gregg laughs]

- This machine effectively stretches

the leather upper around the mold,

gluing it firmly into position.

I've now been making my trainers for 29 minutes,

and they're finally coming together.

- The shoes that are made here are exported all over the world,

so shoes today could end up in a high street

in Workington down the road, or Fifth Avenue, New York.

Cherry has been to a more unusual shoe factory,

a place that makes thousands of shoes every day,

none of which will ever see the street.

[dramatic music]

- No-one has a relationship with their shoes

quite like a ballerina.

And even though they are not pounding the pavement,

they can get through a pair of shoes

in a single performance.

This is me aged nine at my first-ever ballet performance.

It's one of my happiest childhood memories.

I vividly remember the day

I got my first pair of ballet shoes,

I was over the moon.

I cherished them, I loved that

they were really pretty and delicate, but so strong.

I've always wondered, how do they make them?

[upbeat music]

- Freed of London make 1/4 of a million pairs

of ballet shoes every year,

supplying most of the ballet companies

and top ballet dancers around the world.

Each pair is handmade,

often to the specific requirements of each dancer.

- Allan Doherty is going to fill me in

on some of the secrets to making point shoes.

- Each maker's got their own symbol.

- So anyone who's wearing a pair of shoes

made by you will be able to tell?

Yeah.

- The shoe is created inside out

in the traditional turn shoe method

to keep the stitching out of sight.

First, the inner soul is stapled to a last

and placed onto your satin and cotton upper.

- Hold it in with a single nail.

- Point shoes need the toes reinforcing

and it's done with a surprising ingredient.

- It looks like very old porridge.

What is it?

- It is flour, water and a few secret ingredients.

First of all, what we do is get some paste.

Yep.

- Spread it all over. All over the shoe, like so.

Is that really sticky enough,

just flour and water and a few other bits?

Yep, piece of hessian,

right up to the point where the nail is.

A little bit more paste.

Another piece of hessian.

And then we finish it off with a bit of tissue.

That is your shoe, your block.

Now the pleats are created.

Pull and twist.

- How many shoes do you think you make a day?

I make 34 pairs.

- 34 exactly? - I do, yes.

- The shoes are then stitched in the sewing room

and returned to be turned the right way round.

- So you're rolling it out. - Roll it.

- Oh, I see! - Then twist.

- This is what this is for--

- The broom handle. - Right!

- Oh, wow! Hand-done.

- The most important step comes next

as the point is shaped.

Then the insole is pasted in.

And now we're finishing it.

- More bashing. - More bashing.

- It is brilliant that the most useful tool is a hammer.

Hammer, oh, yes.

- The way you do this is unique to you.

Unique to me, yeah.

It's the moment of truth now.

Oh, wow!

And it must make you really proud.

- It does, it does make us proud just knowing that someone,

somewhere in the world is wearing our shoes.

- From here, the shoe is baked in an oven

for eight hours to make the block go hard

before a final stitching

and a meticulous quality control.

All in all, it's a 16-hour process.

- I've been granted privileged access backstage

at the Royal Ballet

where they get through 13,000 pairs of shoes a year.

And yet these new ballet shoes

are not yet considered performance-ready,

as each dancer will customize their own shoe.

I'm meeting acclaimed principal dancer

Lauren Cuthbertson to find out

how she prepares her shoes for the big night.

- So, these look brand-new.

Can you just put these on and dance in them tonight?

- Well, they would need to be broken in.

- An unbroken shoe isn't flexible

and does not support the foot on point.

All ballerinas have their own unique way of customizing

to improve performance.

This is how I do it.

Whoa!

- So I am just making it more malleable in the sock.

Oh, my goodness!

- It is crunching. - The top part of the shoe...

- You can feel it sort of starts to melt in your hands.

Yes.

- This manipulation gets the shoe

to hug the foot perfectly.

- How do they feel? - It feels like home.

- Really? - Yeah!

- I literally couldn't imagine wearing anything else.

- Lauren also likes to add a few vital wool stitches

to the point of her shoes for added traction.

- It just makes me feel less vulnerable

next to the surface of the floor.

Sometimes I feel like I might slip and slide around

and I don't want to feel like that.

- It just give you a bit of texture.

- It defines the edge of the shoe.

For a performance, I would then scrape off

the satin at the end of the shoe.

- There's one last trick to soften the block

that allows Lauren to perform at her best.

- I would do it on the concrete tiles

of the bathroom and I would go

[shoes thudding]

- like that quite a few times to take the noise out.

- So, is having the right fit vital to your career?

Yeah. It's absolutely vital.

I had absolutely no idea

that the quality of the shoe is critical.

It's not just a shoe.

It's a tool and it can make or break the performance.

[dramatic music]

[upbeat music]

- At the trainer factory in Cumbria,

I've been making my shoes for just 30 minutes

and I already have something resembling a trainer.

It's just lacking sole.

Fortunately, the next stop on the production line

is Sole Fitting.

- Right, I have heated, I've stretched front and back,

I've got a bit of an innard in there.

Now what?

- Now we're gonna rough in the bottom of the sole.

- How do we do that? How do we rough it up?

Put it on another buffer?

- We have a machine, a robot roughing machine.

- [Both] A robot roughing machine!

- Yes, you take the right foot onto that peg

and then you press the blue button.

- Stick it on here, Jim. - Yeah.

- Like that? - Like that.

Onto there.

- Ready? - Ready.

[bright music]

[machine whirring]

- I can see that it's roughing the shoe

with precision accuracy,

but it's leaving the leather in a right old state.

- That's your roughing almost complete.

Guess what?

- That robot has just ruined my shoe.

No, it hasn't.

He's ruined it, look.

I am gonna turn it round now and show you the back.

That's roughened the area

where we're gonna apply the glue

so the sole you're gonna put on this bonds to it correctly.

- Theresa! - Hi!

- Theresa Tyson's job is to apply the glue

that will stick on the soles,

but first we need to apply some primer.

You hold your shoe like that.

A little bit on your brush.

You do the toe and the four-part to them marks there.

How's that?

Could be a bit quicker!

[laughs]

- That doesn't really matter if I get it on the sole there,

does it?

- No, it doesn't matter about that but you have to keep

within the marks of the line.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that.

Ooh, Theresa, look what you did.

It's all right, I've got your back.

- Just take it all the way around the shoe.

- Next, the sole and the glued shoe pass through a machine

called a cement drier,

where an infrared light raises the temperature

to over 120 degrees Celsius.

This activates the special glue.

Now it's time to stick them together.

And that's Carl Dryden's job with his sole press machine.

- No, no, no, let me do it! Like that?

- No. - No. Show me.

Like that.

And you get the sole like that

and you put it on like that.

I see, I see, I see.

- So, hold it. - Yeah.

- Bend the toe towards it, get that in there.

Line it up, yeah, like that.

- Line it up and get this in there.

You turn it upside down.

Heel first, upside down.

- Yeah, and then press that button.

Whoa! Whoa!

Goodbye, shoe!

- The compression machine fills with air,

forcing the glued sole to the upper

with a pressure that's like the weight

of a rhino pressing down on it.

- That's my shoe. That's my shoe.

- And then just-- - Yeah.

Feed it in, yeah.

[upbeat music]

[laughs]

Take it to bed and cuddle it?

I made this shoe.

I made this shoe right from the very beginning.

[upbeat music]

My shoes are complete,

34 minutes after I began making them.

But they need one last inspection

and that's done by Kerry Hoskins.

- Kerry, my shoes are behind there,

why are they in that little machine?

It's a metal detector.

- Is that right? - Yeah.

What would be in them?

- Needles from the machine - Of course, yeah.

Wire off the rougher.

- Can we do mine next? - Yeah.

- These are mine, what are we looking for?

- You've got to check all your stitching.

Make sure that there's none broken.

Make sure your back height's right,

the shoes aren't twisted.

- They're pretty good, aren't they?

Yeah, lovely.

- Now what are you doing? - Tag.

- I am ridiculously proud of these shoes

and I never imagined so much work went into them.

I think these are a thing of beauty, don't you?

Yeah.

[upbeat music]

Careful!

- They're Gregg Wallace ones, they are!

♪ I'm a soul man ♪

♪ I'm a soul man ♪

To make my one pair of shoes,

it has taken 8,900 stitches

and used 65 meters of cotton.

I took 35 minutes to complete them

which may sound quick, but at this rate,

I would only make 17 pairs a day.

Working at full steam,

the six teams here can pump out a pair of shoes

every nine seconds.

The finished trainers, including mine,

are boxed up and taken across to the distribution warehouse.

Pallets for delivery are wrapped up

before being loaded into lorries.

♪ Yow, ♪

♪ I'm a soul man ♪

At the end of the day,

the factory has made 3,626 pairs of shoes

with a total retail value of over 1/4 of a million pounds.

Not bad for a day's work!

What's impressed me about making trainers on this scale

isn't just the speed and the volume that they make,

it's actually the people,

from the ladies stitching by hand

to the guys cutting out material.

- These trainers are sent to shops across the country.

People in Scotland buy more shoes

than anyone else in the UK,

but 80% of the factory's output is exported,

even to shoemaking hot spots like America and China.

- I'm very proud of the shoes I made

and I like to think that someone,

somewhere in the world,

is soon gonna be the proud owner of those blue trainers.