In the age of sneakers, it takes a certain kind of person to wear leather shoes — and it takes an even more specific kind of person to wear Tricker’s leather shoes. These hardy British lace-ups are not for the faint of heart or wallet. They are not timely or on-trend. But they are, paradoxically, quite cool.

Nearly 200 years after it was founded in 1829, family-owned Tricker’s still operates in the historic shoemaking town of Northampton, where it employs 75 artisans to handcraft its footwear. Famously round in toe and thick in sole, Tricker’s masculine shapes abide by, but are not bound by, conservative notions of dress that often restrict leather shoes.

We’re talking a sculptural permanence of the Brancusi and Rodin sort. Like those old masters, the Tricker’s formula produces classically solid stuff.

There is no pretense here, simply shoes made about as ethically as shoes can be made, with the same lasts — the wooden form around which a leather shoe is shaped — that’ve been in use since the reign of George VI. “The past five years we had a big sneaker boom, which obviously doesn’t help us classic shoemakers,” says David Jeffrey, Tricker’s sales director. “But we’ve always stayed very true to our roots and tried to make the best shoes possible.”

This doesn’t merely make Tricker’s stubborn — it makes Tricker’s authentic. Which is crucial to comprehending how a fashion-agnostic shoemaker got anywhere near the notion of “cool.”

Tricker’s has a similar, if more niche, allure to some of the more recognizable leather footwear labels, says Jason Pecarich, founder of menswear retailer and longtime Tricker’s partner Division Road, noting that a signature Tricker’s boot once inspired shoe styles from comparatively younger makers Danner and Timberland. “Although with Tricker’s original,” says Pecarich, “all the pattern pieces fit into each other brilliantly with a combination of line and proportion that is much more refined. It’s like comparing a 1960s Jaguar to a 1980s Oldsmobile.”

Like classic sports cars, Tricker’s shoes primarily draw two types of clientele. The brand has long catered to the old-school shopper who mostly stopped paying attention to style after the ’60s or ’70s. These “classic menswear” types wear their Tricker’s with tailored slacks and raw denim jeans. They’re far more Montblanc than TikTok.

Then there are the guys who fixate on what Highsnobiety editor-in-chief Noah Johnson calls “good clothes,” garments rich with an intangible but obvious aura of almost incidental swag. These consumers appreciate the aesthetics of classic cars and killer garments, but they’re also compelled to go deeper, down to the stitching. Their preferred makers include Evan Kinori, Nicholas Daley, and Margaret Howell, all of whom have created collaborative shoes with Tricker’s.

HAVEN co-founder Arthur Chmielewski, a longtime Tricker’s collaborator, cites the company’s “honesty” as crucial. “In a market flooded with product designed to expire quickly, working with Tricker’s allows us to build something that lasts, while remaining authentic with cultural integrity,” he says. 

These collaborations didn’t all necessarily come at Tricker’s behest. In fact, Jeffrey says, the brand turns down more requests than it takes on. Still, the company is unusually nimble for one of its age, keen to experiment and capable of surprisinglymodest minimums. That is, while most shoemakers produce models in the magnitude of hundreds if not thousands of units, a Tricker’s order might only encompass a couple 20 or 30 handmade pieces. 

This allows smaller designers who align with Jeffrey’s ideals and Tricker’s patient timetables to concoct unique footwear flavors. To complement the artisanal workwear of Evan Kinori and the technical classics of HAVEN, for instance, Tricker’s retooled its tough and wider-fitting “Tramping Shoe” in exclusive fabrications. At the request of Engineered Garments, Tricker’s devised subtly mismatched derbies that Jeffrey described as “an absolute nightmare” to construct. 

And for the intellectual Vancouver micro-maker James Coward, Tricker’s has thus far produced bespoke loafers, monkey boots, and even a rare zipper-fitted boot, all in editions of only a few dozen. It’s impossible to imagine another company this historic going so far for a brand this compact. “There is something undeniable about their footwear,” says James Coward co-founder Daniel Garrod. “It’s durable yet refined, casual while being elegant. As trite as it might sound, we want footwear that you can dress up or down with ease, and Tricker’s delivers that.”

Which is exactly what makes Tricker’s cool. It isn’t the trendy “cool” that burns bright and briefly. It is, somewhat, the earned unpurchasable cool born of age-old heritage, though Tricker’s is different from legacy labels like Levi’s or Dr. Martens that rely on newness and influencers to retain relevance. Instead, Tricker’s is cool because it is consistent. It has perfected and held to a formula of craft purity that today’s makers look to like a guiding star. And it helps that its meaty shoes are sturdily badass.

“When we collaborate, it’s not about disrupting the heritage but evolving it,” Chmielewski says. “That contrast creates energy. That’s why these collaborations resonate. They’re not about novelty.”

Though he’s happy to talk technique, Jeffrey, who’s been with the company for more than 10 years, is too humble to boast that Tricker’s unique acumen has attracted collaborators as disparately powerful as Burberry and Thom Browne, Junya Watanabe and Gabriela Hearst. They all came to Tricker’s because no one else can do what Tricker’s does. And if they think that Tricker’s is the best, Jeffrey concludes, then it must be the best. But in this case, it’s not the collaborators making the brand — it’s the brand making the collaborators. 

“Something about the soul of the product itself gets people’s attention,” says Pecarich of Division Road. “This is the kind of company that deserves to exist and thrive in an era where everything seems temporary, transient, and with little meaning or purpose.”

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