The Axis campaign is rooted in the same idea as the boots themselves: that making things properly and taking pride in doing so is worth celebrating. Filmed across Lancashire, the campaign follows a range of local makers as they go about their normal days. At its centre is a statement of what we believe in: that the things worth owning are the things worth making properly, and that craft and community still matter.
Nobody embodies that more than Richard and Bev.
SETTING THE SCENE: LANCASHIRE AND FOOTWEAR MANUFACTURING
Lancashire is well known for its cotton trade and textile empire of the 19th Century, but quietly running parallel to that was a footwear industry that would come to define entire communities - amongst these was the Rossendale Valley.
Tucked into the hills of East Lancashire, Rossendale became one of the most significant centres of shoe and slipper manufacturing in the world. What began as a cottage industry grew into a fully industrialised trade by the mid-1800s, and at its peak, the valley's mills and factories produced millions of pairs of slippers annually, exported worldwide. The town of Rawtenstall became its commercial centre.
The Rossendale Valley left behind not just a manufacturing history, but a deep-rooted culture of making, understanding materials, and caring about the finished thing. Over the tops of the Rossendale Hills lies the Ribble Valley. This has been home to LANX since 2016, and it’s close enough to feel the warmth of the manufacturing tradition still glowing from the Rossendale valley below.
MEET: RICHARD & BEV
It was in one of these bustling factories in the Rossendale Valley where a young Richard and Bev first met, working together to make shoes and slippers. When visiting the old factory, now deserted, many of their old team photos remained pinned to the walls, serving as a trip down memory lane for them both.
Part of our own factory team, and a couple whose lives have revolved around footwear in the Rossendale Valley. Their story is Lancashire's story: from the factory floors of their younger years in Rawtenstall, to the workshop bench today, still together, still making. It's a first-hand history lesson from two people who have lived and breathed it.
Between them, Richard and Bev bring over 80 years of shoemaking experience to the LANX factory floor. That kind of knowledge isn't learned from a manual. It's accumulated slowly, through years of working with materials, understanding how things are put together, and caring enough to get it right. It's exactly the kind of craft that this county was built on, and exactly the kind of craft we want to carry forward.
A CELEBRATION OF PROPER PEOPLE
From the beginning, making footwear in Lancashire wasn’t just a business decision; it was an instinct, and an itch that needed scratching. Our early years brought the first LANX collections to life through a small, family-run factory in Rossendale, where the knowledge and craft that had shaped the valley were passed into something new.
We are very proud to continue making in Lancashire, passing down those age-old techniques to the next generation of cobblers and cordwainers. We’re ensuring that the flame of footwear manufacturing stays very much alive and scratching the itch LANX began its journey with.
Shining a light on Richard and Bev’s story is likely the same light that shines on much of the Lancashire population - stories like this one run through this county like a stitch through cloth.
People like Richard and Bev show that the things worth owning are the things worth making properly, and that craft and community still matter.