'We wanted to focus on Yorkshire heritage': Pavers Shoes heads to Robin Hood's Bay with its Feel Great trainers

A film crew, a photographer and models on location in the open air will always attract attention from passers-by, who are sure to be curious to know what is going on and when and where they can see the results of all this exciting activity.

So when the Pavers creative team decided to shoot the Yorkshire footwear brand’s latest campaign on the North Yorkshire coast, in Robin Hood’s Bay, Sandsend, and inland in Goathland, heads were turned. “The guys who do the TV, you can't help but notice they have got a lot of kit with them,” says Russ Hampshire, Pavers Head of Creative. “You get so many questions. They're quite excited by the fact they've seen us do something that they may see on TV or in a store.

“We were shooting and filming just on the seafront and the ice cream truck came down and just had to drive right through the scene. Little things like that happen quite a lot.

“As soon as you say ‘Pavers’, people do know who we are, which is quite nice.”

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Pavers is indeed a well-known name across the UK, but especially in North Yorkshire, where the roots of this independent family business lie.

Pavers Shoes was founded in 1971 in York by Catherine Paver with a £200 bank loan, which she said was for a sofa.

Catherine wanted to provide shoes that combined comfort and fit with style and affordability. She sourced them, and began selling at markets, village halls and house parties. She opened her first shop in Scarborough, followed by York, Hull and Newcastle.

Her sons, Graham, Stuart and Ian, helped nurture and develop the family business and now there are more than 160 stores across the UK and Ireland, plus an online shop and catalogue. As well as its own ranges, it stocks Fly Flot, Skechers, Padders, Barkers, Van Dal and Gabor. In 2018 it acquired Jones Bootmaker.

Catherine sadly died in 2017. Stuart Paver stepped down as managing director in September 2023 and is now chairman. His son, Jason Paver, is now MD. The head office and warehouse is at Catherine House at the Northminster Business Park in Upper Poppleton, near York.

So Pavers is very much a family firm, and many of its staff have worked for the company for decades. Russ has worked for Pavers for around 25 years and senior buyer Gemma Gordon for 22 years.

Some staff in the stores have been with the company for 30 and even 40 years. “There's a lot of legacy staff around, which is pretty nice, because I think that culture is something that has remained at Pavers for many years, and it's probably because we've got those long-serving members. It’s got a good feel about it,” he says.

The North Yorkshire coast Feel Great Trainers campaign for men and women celebrates getting outdoors and keeping active, in shoes that offer Pavers’ signature comfort, in a range of standard, wide and extra-wide fits.

The collection also features Pavers Active trainers for walking, exploring and everyday movement.

“Pavers Active offers more of a sporty look,” says Gemma. “It's obviously got memory foam in-socks, easy hands-free entry on the styles as well, very lightweight.

“We started it this spring/summer, just as a test, and it's surpassed all of our expectations, and therefore we've increased the range into autumn/winter, adding new colours, different fits. We've got Pavers Active and Pavers Active Wide as well now. And we're really seeing it take off. We sell quite a lot of shoes on Next and it's up there.

“I often spend time looking at people's feet and what shoes they're wearing, and I think the range has got a very big age appeal. So it could be mother, it could be daughter, it could be grandma as well.”

There are about 20 different options in the range for women and about 12 for men.

“The colours are navy, blacks, greys, and predominantly burgundy is the colour that we're highlighting for winter, and that ties in with the rest of our Pavers trainer range, which is stones, a dark leopard, olives, burgundies, khakis, chocolate brown.”

Russ says: “We've looked into a lot of data recently and we can obviously see a really big opportunity with wide-fit shoes, which we do really well with already, but we can certainly grow that even further.”

Gemma adds: “We're going to increase our Bellissimo range as well, which is a slightly younger-aimed range. So we can cater for mother and daughter in the shops. We're also going to be concentrating on increasing Padders, which we now own, and also Van Dal.”

Stuart Paver is much involved with the Pavers Foundation employee-led charity programme. “It was started after Cathy passed away and it's her legacy,” says Gemma. “So far we have donated over £2.5m to good causes.

“There's a pot, the percentage of the profit gets put into the pot and then all colleagues that work for Pavers can apply for a grant - it could be a new kit for a football club, it could be for a hospital.”

The shoots are a hugely enjoyable aspect. “There's a lot of pressure because we do need to capture the content,” Russ says. “We've got a lot to do, but it's still enjoyable work.”

Fortunately, locals tend to be helpful. “We could just nip into a local coffee shop to get a quick drink and then we'd go and have some lunch. We were having to put equipment in different places and they were just happy for us to put it anywhere that was safe.

“We wanted to focus on a bit of Yorkshire heritage. You could be walking down the seafront in these shoes and trainers, but equally you could go off into the country.”

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