Our Founders

Our story began in 1825 in Street, Somerset, when Cyrus Clark opened a tannery manufacturing leather goods, his brother James working alongside him. Among the sheepskin rugs, James had a flash of inspiration: to use the off-cuts to create slippers – minimising waste, maximising ingenuity, and defining the next 200 years of shoemaking. Every Clarks shoe since our very first pair uses this distinctive combination of innovation and craftsmanship, sustaining all that we do.

Our Roots

Our feet are still firmly planted in the Somerset countryside where it all began. Clarks Headquarters nestles in the shadow of the Glastonbury Tor – a local landmark with a longstanding connection to Clarks that has featured as a stamp of quality throughout our rich 200-year history.

The Clark family has always invested in the Street community, funding and building local amenities, and this location has become an important part of the Clarks identity and heritage. The building still houses some machinery used over our 200-year history, including a steam engine called ‘Anthony’ which was installed in 1910 to power the site and the workers’ cottages located close by. The clock tower, red-brick chimney and water tower can be seen from several miles away.

Next to our HQ in Street is the Shoemakers Museum – a brand-new visitor attraction making public the collections of the Alfred Gillett Trust Charity. The museum archive contains historic items related to Clarks Shoes and the Clark family, including documents, photographs, and advertisements. Incredibly, it houses over 25,000 shoes, showcasing the evolution of shoe designs, constructions, and technologies over the years. The archive continues to actively collect Clarks company materials.

And though Clarks is now a global organisation, that Somerset spirit of looking out for each other is still strong – from taking care of customers to supporting our charity partners.

Our Values

As a Quaker-founded company, social activism and investing in the community have powered the Clark family values for two centuries. Progressive yet unpretentious, Quakers committed to truth, equality and peace – principles integral to our change-making history.

Cyrus and James were lifelong Quakers, and when William, James’s son, took over the company, he followed the guiding principles of equality and community to look after his factory workers. He built homes and supported their education by constructing classrooms and securing funding. And Clarks’ imprint extended beyond employees to benefit wider social initiatives in Street: a theatre was opened, a library was built, and an open-air swimming pool, town hall, and playing fields were established for everyone’s enjoyment.

Clark women were notably active in championing social reform. Quakers were staunchly abolitionist, and in the 1850s Eleanor Stephens Clark vigorously supported anti-slavery activities, including being part of the ‘Free Produce Movement’. This encouraged consumer boycotts of goods made by enslaved people, promoting goods cultivated by free labour instead. Committed to supporting women’s rights, in early 1913, Alice Clark, the first woman in the Clarks Board of Directors, served on the executive committee of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). They ran a six-week-long suffrage pilgrimage, ending in a large rally in Hyde Park, where Alice carried a Street Women’s Suffrage banner made by her sister Esther.