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The first Van Bommel shoe. 1718.

The very first Van Bommel shoe was made on 12 December 1718. This is the day Adriaen van Bommel, at the age of 20, joined the shoemakers' guild of Breda. With the payment of the compulsory craft fee, Adriaen is henceforth an independent shoemaker. For the previous eight years, he was the apprentice of master shoemaker Bernaert Verhoeven. In the 18th century, it was common for boys to be apprenticed to their father at a young age. They worked along for a living and learned the tricks of the trade at the same time. Adriaen, however, was not apprenticed to his father. From this we can infer that his father Reynier was not a shoemaker. It is possible that master shoemaker Verhoeven needed an apprentice, and that Reynier employed his son in shoemaking for a small fee. From the archives we only found out that father Reynier was a skipper on a barge transporting dung.

The first shoemaking workshop of Adriaen and Christiaen van Bommel on Ginnekenstraat in Breda. The first shoemaking workshop of Adriaen and Christiaen van Bommel on Ginnekenstraat in Breda.

(Picture above: The first shoemaking workshop of Adriaen and Christiaen van Bommel on Ginnekenstraat in Breda.)

Of the many hundreds of Dutch shoemaker workshops that existed in the 18th and 19th centuries, only the company of the Van Bommel family still exist todays. The trade was passed down from father to son eight times over a period of more than 300 years. During this time, apart from one year of compulsory closure during the Second World War, Van Bommel produced shoes continuously. Currently, the company is run by the ninth generation of the family: Reynier, Pepijn and Floris van Bommel.

Looking back, we see that each generation has braved challenges that were typical of the period in which they lived. Frans van Bommel, father of the current management, guided the company through a period in which the Dutch shoe industry completely disappeared. Globalisation caused an unprecedented wave of bankruptcies in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. During Frans's career, the Dutch shoe industry shrank from 227 shoe factories to just one. Grandfather Jan led the company together with his brother Manuel and two cousins through World War II and several global crises. Great-grandfather Janus, together with his mother and brother, steered the shoemaking business into the industrial age. The generations before them persevered through the first scale-up. They evolved from independent shoemakers to shoemaking workshops with several employees and a market larger than their own village.

Surviving time and again required a lot of ingenuity and perseverance. This historical section covers some of these highlights in the company's history.

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(Picture above: Map of the fortified city of Breda in 1747. Adriaen grew up on Doelsteeg in the house by the red dot. The shoemaker's workshop was on Ginnekenseind (later Ginnekensstraat) by the green dot. About 6,000 people lived in Breda in 1718.)

The very first Van Bommel shoe was made on 12 December 1718. This is the day Adriaen van Bommel, at the age of 20, joined the shoemakers' guild of Breda. With the payment of the compulsory craft fee, Adriaen is henceforth an independent shoemaker. For the previous eight years, he was the apprentice of master shoemaker Bernaert Verhoeven. In the 18th century, it was common for boys to be apprenticed to their father at a young age. They worked along for a living and learned the tricks of the trade at the same time. Adriaen, however, was not apprenticed to his father. From this we can infer that his father Reynier was not a shoemaker. It is possible that master shoemaker Verhoeven needed an apprentice, and that Reynier employed his son in shoemaking for a small fee. From the archives we only found out that father Reynier was a skipper on a barge transporting dung.

The first shoemaking workshop of Adriaen and Christiaen van Bommel on Ginnekenstraat in Breda. The first shoemaking workshop of Adriaen and Christiaen van Bommel on Ginnekenstraat in Breda.

(Picture above: The first shoemaking workshop of Adriaen and Christiaen van Bommel on Ginnekenstraat in Breda.)

Of the many hundreds of Dutch shoemaker workshops that existed in the 18th and 19th centuries, only the company of the Van Bommel family still exist todays. The trade was passed down from father to son eight times over a period of more than 300 years. During this time, apart from one year of compulsory closure during the Second World War, Van Bommel produced shoes continuously. Currently, the company is run by the ninth generation of the family: Reynier, Pepijn and Floris van Bommel.

Looking back, we see that each generation has braved challenges that were typical of the period in which they lived. Frans van Bommel, father of the current management, guided the company through a period in which the Dutch shoe industry completely disappeared. Globalisation caused an unprecedented wave of bankruptcies in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. During Frans's career, the Dutch shoe industry shrank from 227 shoe factories to just one. Grandfather Jan led the company together with his brother Manuel and two cousins through World War II and several global crises. Great-grandfather Janus, together with his mother and brother, steered the shoemaking business into the industrial age. The generations before them persevered through the first scale-up. They evolved from independent shoemakers to shoemaking workshops with several employees and a market larger than their own village.

Surviving time and again required a lot of ingenuity and perseverance. This historical section covers some of these highlights in the company's history.

null

(Picture above: Map of the fortified city of Breda in 1747. Adriaen grew up on Doelsteeg in the house by the red dot. The shoemaker's workshop was on Ginnekenseind (later Ginnekensstraat) by the green dot. About 6,000 people lived in Breda in 1718.)