Floris van Bommel

In 1734 my great great great great great great grandfather started making shoes. Hand-made! (sounds interesting, but, hey, shoemaking machines did not exist yet… indeed, America’s Declaration of Independence had yet to be written and Napoleon would not be wearing his first nappy until 35 years later).

Currently my brothers, Reynier and Pepijn, and I are the ninth generation in our family business. We still make high-quality shoes. Basically, we use many materials and perform many operations that make the average shoe producer snigger.

In 1952 our Queen appointed us Purveyor to the Royal Household by Appointment. We think that is cool.

In 1996 my father launched the ‘Floris van Bommel’ fashion brand, an addition to the classic ‘Van Bommel’ brand. My dad once claimed that he came up with my name and for that very reason also has some sort of copyright or intellectual property right to it. I started to get involved in the brand in 1999. I have always benefited greatly from the wise words of William Shatner: “How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It’s simple. I drink the blood of young runaways.”