Shops / Shop of the Week
Shop of the Week: KBK Shoes, Cheltenham Road
Not many shoe shops have over 100 years of history, are family owned, have survived the wave of online shopping, and are still around to tell their tale.
Founded in 1910, KBK Shoes is one of the lucky few.
The Cheltenham Road-based store has historically been a destination spot for Dr Martens, but now also sells Solovair, Red Wing Shoes and more.
Despite its prestige, KBK has had to adapt to the challenges of the last few decades, including online shopping and chain retailers.
Owner Tom Wilkes says what makes KBK stand out from the crowd is the staff’s specialist knowledge on everything boot-related.
“What we try and achieve is the right fitting,” he said.
“You walk around and see lots of people in Dr Martens, (and) nearly everyone’s got a big crease across the front and the leather is cracking. That’s normally because they’ve sized online”.
KBK aims to provide customers with years of wear from their boots, and that’s how it’s developed a faithful and wide customer base.
It has also launched an online branch, which helped it through the COVID pandemic.
Tom recalls working with local businesses to provide footwear for essential workers, like safety boots for construction workers and footwear for hospital porters.
KBK has the rare honour of stocking selective shoe brand Solovair – photo: James Booth
But the addition of an online customer base has not changed the ethos or working model of the small team.
”Every order is wrapped behind that desk and posted out,” Tom said.
When Dr Martens was bought out in the 2010s, it opened dozens of exclusive brand stores, including one in Bristol.
Yet Tom felt this didn’t harm his business, explaining “rather than fighting over the same customer, (we have) almost two totally different customers”.
KBK has always been about classic shoes and boots, whereas the new Dr Martens stores tend to cater to more avante-garde styles.
“If a customer comes in and they want something quirky, I’ve got somewhere I can point them now, rather than turning them away,” he said.
Nevertheless, with a brand that aims to cater for every size and style, you can still see some funkier designs in KBK, like a Dalmatian-style boot.
KBK’s team outside the store in 1999. Tom’s family has run the store for decades – photo: Philip Wilkes
One of Tom’s proudest achievements at the company is stocking a particularly prestigious make of shoes.
“Red Wing are an American brand and they’re incredibly picky about where they put their product,” he said.
Red Wing offers a short probation period for shoe retailers, where they can sell one or two styles of shoe. Then based on customer feedback, the retailer is granted, or more often declined permission to sell the products.
“When you pay three or four hundred pounds for a boot, you expect it to last a long time; to be sat down and offered the right sizings and care information,” Tom said.
Tom’s family has run the store for the past 30 years, and the shop has remained in the same location that it has been in since its founding in 1910.
As well as updating the store-front sign and adding some historic photos of the shop, Tom has a number of goals for the future.
One is cementing its position as a destination store, to which people will travel from “anywhere in a 40 mile radius to buy the product, and get it fitted properly”.
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