Lennertson

Can you descri­be your style as rug­ged and refi­ned? Then the lea­ther shoes from Len­nert­son might match your out­fits per­fect­ly! This Bel­gi­an brand was foun­ded by two fri­ends from Has­selt and Genk, Robin Car­lo and Robin Tod­de. Both are (most­ly) vege­ta­ri­an, but still a fan of lea­ther shoes becau­se of the high qua­li­ty and the repai­ring pos­si­bi­li­ties.

Len­nert­son means ​‘being lionhe­ar­ted’; going for­ward cou­ra­ge­ous­ly, with your own ori­gin sto­ry. The brand was born out of per­so­nal need. As the fri­ends grew up, they noti­ced that shoes in the Bene­lux and Euro­pe were a bit stiff. Bri­tish shoe brands deligh­ted and inspi­red them, but this was not quite what they were loo­king for eit­her. So they star­ted their own brand, whe­re style comes first and ethi­cal working con­di­ti­ons are gua­ran­teed. With a last maker in Eng­land and the pro­duc­tion work­shop in Spain, ful­ly Euro­pean!

Ethical & transparent

For the foun­ders of Len­nert­son, ethi­cal working con­di­ti­ons are essen­ti­al. That is why they choo­se to pro­du­ce in Euro­pe, the shoes are made in a small fac­to­ry in Por­tu­gal, by real artisans. All lea­ther comes from tan­ne­ries in Ita­ly, Spain and Ser­bia and the lasts on which the shoes are made come from Eng­land. The exact pro­duc­tion loca­ti­ons were dis­c­lo­sed by Len­nert­son to COSH, trans­pa­rent!

Within the Euro­pean Uni­on, the hig­hest stan­dards, laws and rights are ensu­red. Moreo­ver, Len­nert­son has a short sup­p­ly chain thanks to the enti­re­ly Euro­pean production. 

Len­nert­son choo­ses to work only with com­pa­nies that share their values. Robin and Robin regu­lar­ly visit their part­ners and main­tain a clo­se rela­ti­onship with them. So you can be sure that your shoes are made in ethi­cal con­di­ti­ons! And the­re is a lot of work invol­ved, it can take weeks or months befo­re a pair of shoes is finished.

Materials

All Len­nert­son shoes are (so far) made of Euro­pean cow lea­ther, the mate­ri­al that is most dura­ble accor­ding to the foun­ders. The­re is a lay­er of cork bet­ween the inso­le and out­so­le and some­ti­mes the out­so­le is made of rub­ber ins­tead of lea­ther. The shoes are con­s­truc­ted using Goo­dyear welt­ing, a dura­ble and tra­di­tio­nal method, which adds ano­ther lay­er of rein­force­ment around the sole. This con­s­truc­tion allows the shoes to last a long time and to be repai­red easily.

The shoes are pro­du­ced in small bat­ches, which helps to ensu­re qua­li­ty con­trol. Pack­a­ging and ship­ping of the shoes is done in-house in Bel­gi­um. Each pair of Len­nert­sons pas­ses through the hands of the owners of the company.

Animal wellbeing

It is important for Len­nert­son to use Euro­pean lea­ther, becau­se here the stan­dards are rela­tively high and the cow lea­ther is a was­te pro­duct.

In the future Len­nert­son would also like to make vegan shoes. For this, they first need time to rese­arch sus­tainable mate­ri­als becau­se vegan lea­ther today is most­ly pla­s­tic-based. It would also be a chall­enge to make the Goo­dyear welt vegan.

Circular economy

The shoes are ​‘made to last’ and end­less­ly repai­ra­ble, which fits in per­fect­ly with the cir­cu­lar eco­no­my! In terms of pack­a­ging, the shoes come in boxes made from recy­cled card­board, with a fil­ling of thick paper to pro­tect the shoes. The box also comes with a sus­tain­ab­ly prin­ted shoe pass­port con­tai­ning infor­ma­ti­on about the shoes.

Slow fashion

Style is always a top prio­ri­ty at Len­nert­son. They want to make sty­lish items that repre­sent peo­p­le like them­sel­ves, the lionhe­ar­ted, rug­ged and refi­ned. The shape, pro­por­ti­on, pat­terns and mate­ri­als are cho­sen accordingly. 

The owners of Len­nert­son have had a spe­cial last made in Nort­hamp­ton, Eng­land. This last has a spe­ci­fi­cal­ly shaped toe box and shape, a fun­da­men­tal part of the shoe design. The fit is a litt­le wider than the stan­dard width as for many men this fits bet­ter. The brand also works with the Eng­lish size sys­tem.

Len­nert­son star­ted with a coll­ec­tion for men, but wants to expand with a women’s coll­ec­tion in the future. The brand is also explo­ring the opti­on of releasing a limi­t­ed edi­ti­on women’s shoe in suede. Becau­se of the dif­fe­rence in foot shape and the­r­e­fo­re in the last, the coll­ec­tion is curr­ent­ly not sui­ta­ble for women. The foun­ders belie­ve that the rug­ged, refi­ned style suits a cer­tain type of per­son, not a cer­tain gen­der. A nice thought, we think at COSH!

Len­nert­son shoes have a tim­e­l­ess look and are not trend depen­dent. The­r­e­fo­re, Len­ner­s­ton does not have a con­ti­nuous­ly chan­ging and suc­ces­si­ve coll­ec­tion. They also don’t par­ti­ci­pa­te in sales, becau­se this does­n’t fit in the slow busi­ness model. 

Still want to pick up a Len­nert­son bar­gain? Then take a look among their B‑grades offe­rings! The­se are shoes that have minor imper­fec­tions and are the­r­e­fo­re sold at a redu­ced pri­ce. They are still beau­tiful and qua­li­ty shoes, Len­nert­son main­ta­ins as a bench­mark that the flaws are not noti­ceable to anyo­ne else loo­king at your shoes.

Can’t wait to try the Len­nert­son shoes with your out­fit? Check out the map below to see whe­re you can buy them.