GRIPFAST COMING SOON.....

NPS Shoes is proud to welcome Gripfast to its line-up from AW2021!

Gripfast was founded by Northamptonshire based White & Co, who were experts in shoe design and manufacturing.

White & Co was a family owned business established in 1890, with a wealth of knowledge in footwear the company manufactured classic leather footwear along with sports shoes. White & Co like NPS Shoes were lucky enough to become a government contractor and in the 1940’s manufactured footwear for the British Army which further extended to a military contract for the Australian Army.

For approximately 20 years from the 1960’s White & Co began producing shoes for various Northamptonshire footwear brands under license.

Gripfast was established in 1990, manufacturing Goodyear welted steel toe boots using high quality leathers, the boots were manufactured on a UK army last with a 22mm Commando Double Sole, reinforced with screws. Popular amongst modern subcultures Gripfast has continued its growth in popularity around the globe.

The brand came about from two things. The first being a demand for a slightly more rugged, extreme, edgier boot. At the same time the company had become dependent on producing footwear for other brands and were looking to complement existing production with something a little different, whilst still concentrating on what they did best – Goodyear Welting. Gripfast provided this and they were soon making 1000 pairs a week. Markets rapidly developed in the US and Central and Eastern Europe.

Although times changed and unfortunately in 2003 White & Co ceased production, instead of closing altogether they opted to move production to other Goodyear welted footwear factories in Northamptonshire, which is where the link to NPS Shoes originates.  

NPS Shoes have been manufacturing Gripfast on behalf of White & Co which has historically been distributed to the US market. In the not to distant future we will launching Gripfast to our customers worldwide. 

Please look out for further announcements on our social media pages.