About Us

Having just reached a decade, Fairfax & Favor has grown into a multi-award-winning brand at the very forefront of British Luxury Fashion & Rural Vogue. We design with both town and country in mind, creating timeless investments for anyone with a passion for style and adventure. Fairfax & Favor is a lifestyle. Welcome to the club.

Chapter 1

Put your best foot forward

Behind every brand is an untold story and ours is no different... except to say our story is a little different. Late in the spring of 2012, our yet-to-be founders, Marcus & Felix, made an ambitious pact: to combine their middle names and launch their very own footwear brand; one that would specialise in luxury boots and shoes inspired by country life. They wanted to pioneer rural vogue accessories and, despite having no idea how, nothing was going to stop them. Fairfax & Favor was their future.

Fast forward a few weeks later, while they were thinking long and hard about their next step, Felix was hit by a lightbulb moment: his godfather sold leather gun slips manufactured in Spain, a country celebrated for producing some of the most beautiful leather shoes in the world. That was their in... to the world of leather at least.

Chapter 2

Pub Money & Antique Fireplaces

They were right. Spain was promising. But establishing which country to start their treasure hunt for the finest shoemakers was only one problem solved. There was still the matter of actually finding a factory that would help them and then being able to pay that factory for their help. But having had zero luck with the former, they decided to focus on funds and how exactly they would bootstrap their new venture of handcrafted leather footwear.

The answer; use their University's excessively long summer break to work hard and spend very little. It worked. They split their time between pub shifts at The Bedingfeld Arms and working as a fireplace delivery team for After The Antique, before combining their summer savings with their young-blood desire to prove boots could be made well - the way they ought to be - and still look great in both the city and country.

Next up was acquiring their first batch of shoes and boots, namely where to make them and how.

Chapter 3

The Alicante Adventure

We found a factory in Spain that made shoes. That was the good news. The bad news was, we had to order 420 pairs. It was the same everywhere. The money we had saved was not enough. It wasn’t even close. With nothing to lose, we found some cheap flights to Alicante, landed in Spain, jumped on a bus and walked around some town at the foot of some mountains for hours and hours.

With our funds dwindling fast, we scrabbled together what little Spanish we knew and asked the receptionist at a local school for directions. She went one better; for 50 euros, she offered to call the factory on our behalf and schedule a pick up. We agreed, and the next day four trucks rode into the centre of town, picked us up and then left Dodge in a cloud of smoke. We climbed mile after mile into the mountains, each hairpin bend shaking our nerves, turning any excitement we had felt into brilliant regret, we had been kidnapped.

Of course, they quashed this hasty conclusion of ours by showing us around their factory. The factory agreed to make 420 pairs of off-the-shelf loafers and deliver them within four weeks, but one condition: we paid every cent upfront. We agreed, shook hands, flew home via a few sangrias and spent what felt like an eternity pulling pints and delivering fireplaces, the thought of “what have we done?” hanging heavy on our minds.

Six weeks later, 390 pairs of Fairfax & Favor branded shoes arrived on our doorstep. It wasn’t quite what we had agreed but, for some reason, we didn’t feel like complaining.

Chapter 4

A Heroic Death

Our first rookie mistake was storing the 390 boxes of shoes in mum’s attic. Logistically, it was horrendous, while sweeping it clean of dust can only be described as “medically inadvisable”. Still, we had our shoes, we had them stored somewhere safe, and we had a plan; doorstep a bunch of shops in Norwich and have them buy our shoes... well, easier said than done.

One shop bought £80 worth of shoes, another agreed to take ten pairs and pay on sale, while another took some of our stock but, now we think of it, never actually paid. It was a heroic death. But we did learn something from this failure; the fastest way we could generate cash was to coerce our friends and family into buying the shoes.

If we ever wanted to clear the 300-plus pairs of shoes that were still playing clutter in the attic, we only had one option; sell direct. Cue our first show season.

Chapter 5

Rolling Stones

In the summer of ‘13 with next-to-nothing in the bank, no friends left and a few unpaid bills on the to-do list, we approached Holkham about getting a pitch at their Country Fair, trying our luck two days before it kicked off. Luckily, someone had just pulled out. There was a patch of grass available, six meters by four. Unfortunately, it came with a £600 price tag.

Embracing the spirit of Alicante, we drove to the Holkham offices, charmed them down to £200 (OK, and a pair of shoes each for the office staff) and went about setting up our first ever stand, which was assembled out of an old gazebo, our living room sofa, bar tables from the pub, old cabinets, tuck boxes, trunks and anything else that looked a bit like treasure if we squinted hard enough. The only thing we spent money on was the Fairfax & Favor sign. It was £25. And we propped it up with two shooting sticks found in an old stable. It was rough, but it was home.

With the sun shining down on us like a new penny, we sold 80 pairs of shoes. It was enough to cover our costs and pay for a pitch at the next one. It was the start of our love affair with shows and, in an attempt to keep the momentum going, we vowed to invest everything we made back into the company. No exceptions.

Chapter 6

Glitz and Glamour

After a year of growing Fairfax & Favor by day, manning the pub by night and delivering fireplaces on any weekend we had off, things started to improve. We began paying ourselves a small token wage a week and focusing every minute we had on shoes. No more pub or near-death experiences attempting to deliver 1/2 tonne slabs of stone.

We converted an underground loo into our office and started using an old stable as our storeroom. The days of lugging hundreds of boxes up and down the attic-ladder after each show were now behind us.

Of course, it wasn’t all roses and sloe gin because getting the stable storeroom-ready was atrocious. It was a century-old scrapyard of junk, dust, festering manure and asbestos. Oddly enough, we don’t have a picture of this day on our wall.

Chapter 7

A Letter from A Famous Italian Brand

...Snaffle Loafers (Which We Will Not Name for Legal Reasons)

While choosing designs in Alicante, we had naively chosen an off-the-shelf loafer that had a snaffle buckle. It was a gorgeous design and we were little more than dreamers, not experts in copyright infringement. It didn’t matter. We received a 92-page letter from a famous Italian brand threatening to sue us. To say it made us quake in our inspired loafers would be an understatement. But there was more. The letter arrived at 5.30pm on a Friday, which was real weekend-ruiner and the first few pages of the letter constituted a list of law suits they had won. It wasn’t the most uplifting bedtime read. The future of Fairfax & Favor was heading for a cliff edge, our name set to take a nosedive and land with a splat at the bottom of their list, no doubt filed under “Squashed Dreams”.

Their demands were staggering. A £100,000 fine, a full-page apology in the telegraph, receipt of all our shoes and our signature on a document that stated we would never be so foolish to mess with the brand again. It was terrifying. They were threatening to sue us, they had lawyers that dealt with Diana’s divorce from Charles. They had lawyers you call when you want to divorce a future King and we had Mark from Swaffham; the cheapest lawyer money could buy.

Mark’s plan? To get the £100k fine reduced to £40k. The problem? This was still more than twice our annual turnover. Luckily, we managed to convince another lawyer to send an email on our behalf. We won’t go into details, but he used the phrase “I would like to educate you on a point of law” and then offered them a deal to pay much-much-much less, send back all the shoes and sign their document. They Agreed. Thank God. And thank God they had sent that letter on the Friday because we were about to order another 800 pairs.

Sending the shoes back hurt but, being young and foolish, we had some fun. We mixed all the shoes, sizes and colours so that no box contained a matching pair. Yes, the famous Italian brand had the last laugh, but we enjoyed a little snigger before the curtain fell.

Chapter 8

Regina

There is a moment in everyone’s life when the game changes – when all the daydreaming, night-thinking, blood, sweat, tears and hopes of what if finally come together. For us, that moment arrived when we gave the Spanish bota a different song to sing.

We saw something that no one else had and so we set about transforming this once clunky workhorse into a glass slipper now known as the “Regina” boot. With its slim-fit, stylish heel and an interchangeable tassel, we had turned this farmhouse plodder into a polished piece fit for the runway.

Regina has been our lucky charm ever since.

Chapter 9

Game On

Year-on-year at the tail end of July, our entire team gear up in preparation for a full-blown magical weekend of boots, shoes, sunshine and showers as we fly our flags high for the Game Fair.

To us, the Game Fair is more than just a show. It is a milestone, one that overcomes us with a monumental sense of pride and achievement. In our early days, the show circuit was a daunting prospect; we were miniscule fish in a monstrously large pond, and didn’t we know it. We paddled in the shallow end for a few years, with a 3 metre stand here and a 6 metre stand there, but it was in 2015 where the Game Fair allowed us to really push the boat out, giving us our first real opportunity for our first BIG pitch and oh boy, were we going to make the most of it.

A bigger pitch meant more space, a whole 9 metres to be precise. 9 metres meant more customers, more customers inevitably equated to more sales, more sales required more stock. It was turning into a military operation, one which required us to collar all of our closest friends to help muck in with no objection; we didn’t need to do much persuading, however, as the temptation of the free bar was a clear selling point.

Since that memorable year, our Game Fair experience continued to flourish. We will forever welcome our customers with open arms and entice with exclusive product launches, a sprinkling of wizardry from our in-house magician, and of course the temptation of a refreshingly light gin-based cocktail, kindly provided by our friends at Twelve Keys Gin. To top it all off, our specialist whizz-videographer has documented every step of the way, so you can just sit back, relax, delve into our video archives and relive the memories...

Chapter 10

The Here and Now

The past years have been breath-taking. We started as two childhood friends who took the plunge; now we have over 30 full-time employees, a warehouse in Portugal, numerous channels of business that range from online to shows, showroom to wholesale and new stockists flooding in.

Back in 2017 we were elated when our Imperial Explorer was crowned the winner of Best New Footwear Product of the Year at the Shooting Awards; and, most recently, Fairfax & Favor was named Best Luxury Brand of The Year at the 2019 Direct Commerce Awards.

Our Breast Cancer Care campaign is our chance to give a little something back for a cause that has touched both our family’s. We are utterly overwhelmed with the continued support this campaign receives, heavily endorsed by bloggers and celebrities and cheered on by our incredibly loyal customers. Thanks to you, to date we have raised a staggering £509,000 for the charity.

From rickety beginnings in a bedraggled pop-up gazebo plopped in a field come rain or shine, our journey on the show circuit has helped shape who we are, and what we believe in today. Our remarkable, hard-working show team are now a dab hand on the circuit, demonstrated by their fabulous accolade, winning a Gold award for Best Trade Stand at the prestigious Badminton Horse Trials.

Our Gallery

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

June 2013: Fairfax & Favor open at Holkham Game Fair

September 2013: Fairfax & Favor at Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials

December 2013: Fairfax & Favor aquire trailer licences.

January 2014: The Regina boot being auctioned in aid of the Household Cavalry Foundation

May 2014: Badminton Horse Trials

October 2014: Our first photoshoot

January 2015: Feature in Norfolk Magazine

February 2015: Sponsoring Billy Aprahamian

April 2015: The Warehouse starts to take shape

July 2015: Holkham Country Fair

October 2015: Photoshoot

February 2016: Sponsoring the RAU Equestrian Team

March 2016: Clare Balding wears Regina Boots to Cheltenham

June 2016: Polo in the Park

August 2016: The Game Fair

October 2016: Supporting Breast Cancer Care

January 2017: Founders Marcus & Felix are listed in the Drapers 30 under 30.

April 2017: The Newmarket Racecourse team in Fairfax & Favor boots. Welcoming the Duchess of Cornwall, to unveil a statue of King Charles II.

May 2017: Being presented the award for winner of Best New Footwear Product of the Year at the Shooting Awards

October 2017: Supporting Breast Cancer Care

December 2017: Fairfax & Favor supports British Polo Day in Jaipur

Summer 2018: The Fairfax and Favor Team

May 2018: First Prize for the Fairfax & Favor stand at Badminton

July 2018: Fairfax & Favor celebrates 5 years

October 2018: Supporting Breast Cancer Care

May 2019: Piggy French wins the Fairfax & Favor Rockingham International Horse Trials

June 2019: Winning the Direct Commerce Award for Luxury/Prestigious Brand

September 2019: Equestrian Team GBR in Fairfax & Favor boots

July 2019: The Fairfax & Favor stand at the Game Fair

July 2019: Fairfax & Favor at The Game Fair

September 2019: The Fairfax & Favor Holt Store opening

November 2019: Becoming an official British Eventing Partner

December 2019: Equestrian Team GB in Fairfax & Favor

July 2019: The NAF British Junior squad completed the European Championship in Maarsbergen, five clear rounds, an individual silver and team silver.

August 2019: The Fairfax Team

October 2019: Supporting Breast Cancer Care

March 2020: Fairfax & Favor win the Drapers Footwear Award for Best Use of Social Media

April 2020: Fairfax & Favor Support the NHS Charities COVID-19 Urgent Appeal and raise £128,222!

October 2020: Breast Cancer Now campaign raises over £125,000

November 2020: Poppy tassels for our British Heroes raised over £37,000

November 2020: Listed as no. 88 in the Fast Track 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies

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January 2021: The Great British Brands Community Award: Highly Commended.

June 2021: Direct Commerce Awards for The Best Social Media Campaign

April 2021: A proud achievement, our inclusion in the Tatler Address Book

September 2021: Founders Marcus & Felix cycle from the Bedingfeld to Bordeaux to raise money for Cancer Research UK

September 2021: Fairfax & Favor are nominated for the Positive Social & Sustainable Impact Award in the Lloyds Bank Business Excellence Awards 2021

October 2021: Our Holt Store was awarded the best Women's Store in the Muddy Stilettos Awards Norfolk 2021! The Awards recognise the best Businesses in Norfolk in their individual categories.

December 2021: Fairfax & Favor won the Positive Impact award at the National SME Business Awards

September 2021: Equestrian Team GBR in Fairfax & Favor boots

November 2021: The second store opens in Stamford

April 2022: Fairfax & Favor open their third store in Helmsley

April 2022: Fairfax & Favor are the official supplier of formal footwear and accessories to the teams at the FEI European Championships in the Olympic disciplines of Eventing, Jumping and Dressage.

April 2022: Fairfax & Favor are recognised as one of the top 1000 growing companies in Europe in the Financial Times

May 2022: Fairfax & Favor are nominated for Best Customer Service in the SME Business Awards

May 2022: Fairfax & Favor's new 60,000sq' Warehouse opens in Snetterton

June 2022: Fairfax & Favor are ranked 45th in the Alantra Digital Fast 50. The list celebrates the fastest growing, most sophisticated digital consumer brands and companies in the UK.

September 2022: The GBR Eventing team at the FEI Eventing World Championship in Pratoni, Italy wearing Fairfax & Favor for the trot up

September 2022: Fairfax & Favor are nominated as a finalist in the Drapers Awards 2022

September 2022: Fairfax & Favor appear in Brightpearl's lightning 50 - the fastest growing ecommerce companies

September 2022: Fairfax & Favor's fourth store opens in the delightful Stow-on-the-Wold

October 2022: Fairfax & Favor were announced as the winner in the Luxury and Prestige category in the More2 Direct Commerce Awards

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November 2022: Fairfax & Favor open their fifth store in Marlow

December 2022: Fairfax & Favor won the award for Service Excellence at the SME National Business awards

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April 2023: Fairfax & Favor launch their first trade stand in the United States at the Land Rover Kentucky 3-Day 5*

May 2023: Fairfax & Favor become official sponsors of Badminton Horse Trials

May 2023: Fairfax & Favor launch their "Rural Vogue" Print in celebration of their 10 Year Anniversary

May 2023: Fairfax & Favor are recognised in the top 10 of Fasting Growing Brands in the Growth Index for 2021-2023

June 2023: Fairfax & Favor make the Sunday Times 100, Britain's fastest-growing private companies. The league table takes on the baton from The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 series, which celebrated the country's leading entrepreneurs for 24 years. The 2023 league table is supported by Barclays Private Bank, DHL Express and Inflexion.

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June 2023: Fairfax & Favor make the FEBE Growth 100 - which celebrates the greatest entrepreneurs in Britain and the fastest growing 100 companies - read more here.

July 2023: Fairfax & Favor are ranked 45th in the Alantra Digital Fast 50. The list celebrates the fastest growing, most sophisticated digital consumer brands and companies in the UK.

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