A fire at a Portuguese factory destroyed the Skinners autumn collection

First of all, we want to apologise to all our customers and supporters. The Skinners autumn and winter barefoot collection is reaching the market later than our customers are used to and later than is usual on the market. The reason is a large fire at one of our main manufacturing partners in Portugal.

At the end of June we were hit hard. A factory in Portugal where we made most of our autumn shoe collection burned down. Along with the building, months of intensive development, materials and finished products worth 15 million CZK went up in flames. For a company of our size this was a major blow right before the start of an important autumn season.

Photos and videos of the burned Skinners production

Instead of vague promises, marketing tricks or selling gift vouchers, we focused on restoring production in full quality and making the shoes our customers expect from us. At the same time we pushed as hard as we could over the summer months to build a cushion for any complications.

Solidarity across the industry and a rapid restart of production

An incredible wave of solidarity became a huge boost for us. Other suppliers and even competitors from the shoemaking trade immediately offered a helping hand to our affected partner. Thanks to that effort, production was restored in record time.

Thanks to the work done over the summer, the most popular women’s leather models Astra II Black, Nebula Black and Chelsea Black are already in stock in our online store.

How the pre-orders and the two delivery waves work

So that customers do not have to wait for the rest of the collection, we decided to release the remaining autumn and winter range in two waves as pre-orders. As a thank you and a reward for your patience, we are offering a 20% compensation discount on all of these pre-orders.

We expected that women tend to sort out their autumn footwear a little earlier than men. The first wave of pre-orders, with delivery by 30 September, is mainly for men’s ankle boots and the insulated slip-on. The second wave, with delivery on 12 October, brings completely new models and elegant colour variants in Cognac.

We deeply appreciate every customer who decides to wait for their shoes.

The Skinners team