church s chicken . for other uses see church s disambiguation . this article relies too much on references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . february 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message church s shoes type private industry retail founded 1873 founder thomas church and his three sons headquarters northampton england products shoes owner prada equinox website church footwear.com church s works in st james road northampton native american indian on the front office of the building see st. james end northampton church s is a high end english footwear manufacturer founded in 1873 by thomas church and his three sons . 1 during the 1990s the company came under the control of prada which bought 83 % of the company at us 170 million . prada later sold a 45 % stake to equinox a private equity firm . contents 1 history 2 location 3 notable users 4 references 5 external links history edit between the two world wars church s became actively involved in the development of the footwear industry in general . in 1919 the british boot shoe and allied trades research association was created with church s as a founder member . as a result of this partnership the northampton technical college was established in 1925 . this went on the become the university of northampton in 2005 . the family business was taken over by prada in 1999 and has since then expanded its outlets overseas . 1 as of 2014 the company employed 650 people . the same year church s took over adjacent premises in st james road formerly a tram and later a bus depot in anticipation of further expansion which could add up to another 140 jobs . 2 location edit its main installations are located in the st james area of northampton with an estimated production capacity of 5 000 pairs per week 70 % of which are exported all over the world . besides products sold to resellers and individual customers the company also has several of its own retail stores including ones in jermyn street london george street edinburgh and pacific place hong kong . it has 50 stores across central and northern europe america hong kong china singapore and japan . 2 notable users edit during pierce brosnan s tenure as james bond various selections of dress shoes from the church s range were used in production . lindy hemming who was the costume designer explained the choice of church s shoes as having the appropriate weight to complement the silhouette of the tailored brioni suits she had commissioned for bond . 3 british prime minister tony blair had a lucky pair of church s black brogues that he wore to every session of prime minister s questions . 4 references edit a b church history . church s. retrieved 18 august 2014 . a b church s to take over old bus depot . heart radio . retrieved 16 august 2014 . james bond s shoes auction northampton chronicle 4 november 2007 white michael 23 june 2007 . brogue male . the guardian . retrieved 28 december 2011 . external links edit official website this article about an english company is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title church % 27s & oldid 729978279 categories 1873 establishments in englandcompanies based in northamptoncompanies established in 1873english brandsluxury brandsprivately held companies of englandshoe brandsshoe companies of the united kingdomenglish company stubshidden categories articles lacking reliable references from february 2010all articles lacking reliable referencesall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages e tinadanskfran ais italianonederlands edit links this page was last modified on 15 july 2016 at 21 57 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view