The first two shoe styles to come of a tie-up between British heritage brand Clarks and artisan-led footwear company Goods & Services, founded in 2016 and based in Los Angeles, will launch in limited sizes and quantities on May 10, the latter has announced.

Founder of the small-scale “footwear reengineering” business, Rory Fortune, told footwearbiz that Clarks had given Goods & Services “full creative control” throughout the collaboration, which he calls “more of an ongoing partnership” than a one-off. For this initial collection, his team of in-house cobblers worked to reimagine and “rebuild” the iconic Clarks Wallabee desert boot, a core part of the shoe brand’s seasonless Originals line-up, which they welted to a Vibram performance rubber sole, by now a Goods & Services signature.

Specialising in one-of-a-kind bespoke designs, revamps and custom resoling, using traditional craft techniques to revitalise and extend the life of pre-worn shoes ranging from trainers and casual shoes to Birkenstock sandals, Mr Fortune’s company also expanded into original, made-to-order products last October. Its appointment-only downtown atelier, opened it 2019, has experience of working with natural crepe, veg-tanned leather and rubber and can undertake a range of repair work, such as resoles, shoe upper modification (including no-tie lacing options) and the construction of new heel counters, for example. “The opportunities for us to customise something like the Wallabee are [therefore] endless.”

On how working with Clarks came about, Mr Fortune says the brand approached him, green-lighting Goods & Services’ access to the Originals line and “other exclusives” not long afterwards. Though the Wallabee has certainly proven itself “a really good canvas”, the team’s ambitions now extend to making limited runs of special Clarks releases “somewhat regularly”, he reveals, stretching the possibilities for reinterpretation all the more.

A pair of shoes from the initial capsule. Credit: Goods & Services.

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