Chester Jefferies – A Look at Family Craft

Real cottage craft is a tough thing to find these days.  Even most small brands are being forced by technology, the economy, and customers’ demands to mechanize and expand these days.  But Chester Jefferies, a small custom glove maker if Britain is keeping things close to home.

I spoke with Mark Pearce, third generation Managing Director of Chester Jefferies, and his son Shaun about where the firm has been and where they see it going in the next few decades.  Their responses are genuine, optimistic, and demonstrate a pride in what they do that can’t be beat out by market forces.

Chester Jefferies was founded in 1936 in Slough, utilizing outworkers in Wiltshire, Somerset, and Dorset – in 1962 they moved into their present digs in Dorset, in the heart of the West of England.  Mark’s grandfather Gilbert was one of the two founders, and from the beginning the business has been about tradition.

“Outworkers were always used in the Cottage industry of glove making,” Mark told me.  “It came about when the women would have children and would need to stay home. A machine and the gloves for making would be taken to them to work from home and then collected the following week. Traditionally the Mother would pass on the craft of sewing gloves down to their Daughter. This is still used today but on a much smaller scale. When the company was founded we would have had over 50 outworkers and today it is only 3.”

While it would be easy to look at these numbers and fold your hand, Mark’s got the best insurance he can get – his son.  “I feel that unfortunately the glove making craft in Britain will become much smaller, but as we have a fourth generation in the business at just 24 years of age we are hoping to keep the craft alive for a little longer. He is bringing the company into the 21^st Century.”

Shaun himself seems ready for the challenge.  He sees no reason why traditional craft can’t benefit from modern communication. “My personal view on the internet and social media is that it is a fantastic tool for reaching customers all around the world. We can keep our customers up to date with news and new products easily and at almost no cost. We are still making a high quality article for each customer, whether they pop into the factory or order online. The internet is a very powerful tool to small businesses like us.”

Above all, Chester Jefferies is still maintaining their two core values: quality and value.  The glove styles are mostly still based around the originals, which were meant to be made by hand.  Lots of ready-made products (not just gloves) skimp on the amount of material used around seams, in linings, etc. as ways to cut corners and save a little cash.  But not here.

“Our process of making gloves has never changed, from the point the order arrives to when it leaves we keep our level of high standards and make sure every single is checked before it leaves the factory. ”

Leathers are sourced by the Master Glove Makers themselves, and the number of individual processes involved in a single pair of gloves can go anywhere from the teens up, depending on special needs and pattern quirks.  There’s handwork at every stage, and quality control to keep all the craftspeople doing their best work on every glove that goes out the door.

Chester Jefferies’ actual offerings are entirely up to you.  Everything is custom, so you chose a style, leather, lining, and even your hand-size.  For a one-time fee you can have your own pattern made from a full tracing of your hand, and they’ll keep it on file for future orders.  It’s the closest thing you’re going to get to “bespoke” glove making in the modern world.

You can fully expect to see more on Chester Jefferies here later in the season.  They don’t just present a good product, they present good values.  They’re a family business that prides itself on having a close relationship with their workers and their customers.  Speaking with Mark and Shaun, it’s clear that they’re not PR men trying to sell me on the latest fashion.  They want to give me the best damn pair of gloves they can, and just because that’s how gloves should be.