Obituary: Paul Ziff, businessman

Paul Ziff, who has died at 84, was a renowned Leeds businessman who is credited with having been the first sports shoe manufacturer to obtain celebrity endorsements for his products.

It was in 1962 that he founded Stylo Matchmaker, and set about creating an international business from nothing. A branding pioneer and innovator of his time, he made the company the UK’s market leader in football, golf and tennis shoes from the 1960s to the 1980s. The footwear was manufactured in Britain and exported worldwide.

With formidable entrepreneurial skills, his philosophy in business was illustrated by the sign he kept in his office. “No ifs, no buts, only whens,” it read in part.

Among those with whom he entered into endorsement deals were the footballers Pelé, George Best, Bobby Moore and Billy Bremner, and the golfers Arnold Palmer and Nick Faldo, who in 1989 was wearing Stylo Matchmakers when he took the US Masters at Augusta.

The George Best football boot was a particular masterstroke. For his launch in Paris, Mr Ziff flew 120 shoe buyers from the UK on a specially chartered plane, and then canvassed them for orders on the return flight. An entire year’s production had been sold before they touched down in Manchester. When sales reached 1m, Mr Ziff presented Best with a specially commissioned gold boot, at the Playboy Club in London. The boot is now considered a choice piece of memorabilia of the era

At around the same time, Stylo Matchmakers entered the equestrian market, and a few years later purchased the Harry Hall brand.

Born in Leeds in 1935, Paul Ziff was the younger brother of the businessman and philanthropist, Arnold Ziff. He attended Giggleswick School in the Dales before joining the family business. The Ziffs had been in the footwear industry since the period following the First World  War, when Paul and Arnold’s father, Max, set up the first Stylo shop in Leeds.

Paul’s interests were wide-ranging, however. In the 1980s he chaired the building committee in Leeds of the Variety Club of Great Britain, during the construction of an extension to the children’s heart wing in the city. It was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh and later renamed the Mountbatten non-invasive heart wing. He was also a magistrate and supported many other local charities.

In the early 1990s he started a new sportswear company, Finest Brands International and became a Freeman of the City of London as well as Master of the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers, one of the ancient livery companies of the capital with its roots in shoemaking.

After suffering a stroke in 2000, and despite being confined to a wheelchair, he helped in the research efforts of PHD students at Sheffield University and University College London.

He is survived by his wife, Lea, whom he married in 1987.