Thomas Rogerson started his business in 1905 when the need was for heavy, durable footwear giving protection from the environment and long wear. During the 1940’s and 1950’s, one of Thomas’ sons Jack developed the business further in Scotland, with the opening of quality shoe shops in Kelso and Galashiels.
During the late 1960’s Jack’s son Paul joined the business after studying at Northampton Boot and Shoe College, and in 1976 Paul opened the Peebles shop, which was refitted in a modern style and new ranges of shoes were introduced to combat the decline in the boot trade. One of the brands introduced was Mephisto, a good, hard wearing, French walking shoe with excellent fitting properties.
In the early 1990’s Paul opened the Edinburgh shop in Rose Street, originally selling only Mephisto, followed shortly after by the UK’s first Ecco shop, also on Rose Street.
Since then we have grown to 13 shops in total, and the business is now run by Paul’s children William and Sarah, supported by a strong team of approaching 160 people.
The business continues to grow organically, based on the principle of providing quality footwear which represents both quality and value for money. We are different from many other footwear retailers in terms of the breadth of our range, stocking many styles and brands unique to our business. We go to great lengths to source the best and most interesting shoes for our customers, principally from Europe.
Our stores operate on various formats, namely our multi-brand business Fine Rogerson Footwear stores where we sell a wide range of quality branded shoes, boots, sandals and slippers. Then we have our Clearing Shops which sell discontinued stock from our multi-brand shops and from our suppliers, 1st grade substandard and special purchase footwear. There are some amazing buys to be had in our Clearing Shops! We also have a Rieker shop in Newmarket Street, Ayr. This concept store has proved to be hugely popular, with a tremendous range of Rieker products, which represent excellent value.
