The 'Aberystwyth Official Guide and Souvenir' published by the Aberystwyth Corporation in 1924 contains an advert for the shoe shop Stead and Simpson. The advert notes that they were shoe and boot manufacturers selling smart, up-to-date footwear including tennis shoes, golf shoes and sand shoes.
Stead and Simpson were the largest show manufacturer in the world in the 1875. The firm began as a partnership between Edmund Stead (1803 – 1881) and Morris Simpson (1808 – 1888), and established a curriers shop, to process leather for shoemaking, on Kirkgate, Leeds from 1834.
Boots were manufactured from around 1840 and Stead & Simpson were the known as a footwear manufacturer by 1855. By 1875, the business employed 1,216 workers in Leicester, 505 at Leeds, 500 at Daventry, 100 at Northampton and 80 at Oakham. Between 25,000 to 30,000 pairs of shoes and boots could be produced each week. The advert highlights that the company had branches all over the country, and indeed Stead and Simpson had about 100 retail shops by 1889 and 250 by 1934. The company was bought by ShoeZone in 2008.