Sanders and Sanders was established in Rushden in 1873 as a business partnership between William Benjamin Sanders (senior) and his elder brother Thomas Sanders (senior). Rushden was at that time fast becoming a busy footwear manufacturing town of terraced houses, each with its own bootmaker's shed at the end of the garden.

Very little is known about the elder brother Thomas Sanders (senior), other than that he died without issue at a young age but with his surname being retained in the title of the business.

William Benjamin Sanders (senior) ran the business of making boots in a small, four storey factory in Rushden High Street, with a few pieces of basic machinery employing a few operatives and utilising the services of home based "outworkers".

From 1895 he was joined by his eldest son (also William Benjamin) and in 1901 by another son, Thomas, and in 1919 by his youngest son, Leslie.

During the early years of the Sanders business, there was much rivalry between the high quality Northampton Town shoemakers and the rest of the county, who were looked down upon as lowly "bootmakers".

In 1913, the business moved to its present location, a purpose built single storey building in Spencer Road, Rushden which, even today, is regarded as being one of the lightest, brightest and best laid-out factories in the region.

Following the Great War of 1914-1918 in which Thomas Sanders (junior) served with the Royal Army Medical Corps, Sanders and Sanders began to make higher quality boots and shoes of the Goodyear Welted construction. The county "bootmakers" were beginning to show that they too could make shoes to compete with the high quality Shoemakers of Northampton Town.

When William Benjamin Sanders (senior) retired in 1924, three of his sons carried on the business partnership, turning it into a Limited Company in 1938 and continuing the trend of making higher quality men's shoes. Now in its third and fourth generation, the Sanders' family continues the tradition of its forefathers, whilst adapting its production methods and marketing to suit the needs and fashions of the 1990s and into the Millenium.

The Company manufactures a range of men's classic Goodyear Welted footwear, men's lightweight fashion/dress shoes and uniform footwear for a wide range of discerning customers. Mechanisation and new technologies have only a small role to play in what is still very much a craft industry, relying principally upon the skill and diligence of the operative to create good quality men's boots and shoes, at prices that represent good value for money.

You will see Sanders shoes in quality outlets from London to Tokyo, Stockholm through Hamburg, Munich and Paris to Rome - and more recently, New York and Peking.