Oliver Sweeney to launch custom shoe service

British shoe retailer Oliver Sweeneyis launching a custom-made shoe service for summer 2007. Customers will be able to choose from a range of exotic skins including ostrich, crocodile and iguana; plain leathers in seasonal colours; as well as detailing like laces, piping and lining. Built around Oliver Sweeney's two popular toe shapes, Twister and Venice, soles can also be stamped with a personal message, name or date.

The service will be available in the brand's three standalone stores in London and Leeds plus its concession in Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge. The process takes up to 12 weeks and the finished shoe will be delivered to the customer's local store in an embossed wooden box. The shoes will be available in UK sizes 6-14 and prices range from £495 to £990.

Oliver Sweeney was born in Leicester and left home in his mid-teens to seek a living in London. ??The story of how he secured a job as a shop-boy in a grand old shoemakers in the heart of London 's West End has become part of the mythology of Oliver Sweeney. Though every bit of that story is absolutely true: Sweeney worked his way up from unpromising beginnings, learning every trick of the trade and the craft of creating quality shoes for men, as well as a good deal about the art of retailing.

www.oliversweeney.com