You may be surprised to learn that the very first item of footwear made by Clarks was not a shoe but a sheepskin slipper, the year was 1825 and the location was the tannery owned by Cyrus Clark in the Somerset village of Street, Cyrus’ brother James Clark was looking at the ever growing pile of offcuts from the manufacture of sheepskin rugs when he had a eureka moment, “slippers”, from this humble beginning the Clarks shoe empire was born.