Custom shoe designer gets an unexpected boost after Tour de France winner Sir Bradley Wiggins dons his kit
The Shoe Dr has done customised shoes for pros like Harry Tanfield but was still starstruck by the first British Tour winner
Small business owner, Shea Gribbon, received a pleasant surprise when he spotted the first British winner of the Tour de France, Sir Bradley Wiggins, wearing his company's kit in an Instagram picture.
Gribbon, 24, started up a company called The Shoe Dr, which offers bespoke shoe customisation and has already supplied WorldTour rider Harry Tanfield with his own special design.
With each piece of work, Gribbon throws in a pair of socks and one such order went to Wiggins' son last year.
He said: "Bradley happened to pull on the pair of socks I sent to his son before going out for a run one morning and shared a picture of himself on social media wearing them.
"That was pretty cool to see, and proved to be great promotion for my business."
Based in Northern Ireland, Gribbon offers customised designs on cycling shoes, football boots and sneakers, while also repairing, refurbishing and cleaning shoes.
Gribbon was the person responsible for hand painting Harry Tanfield's personalised Yorkshire shoes that he wore during the time trial at the Vuelta a España 2020
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As his shoes are proving so popular Gribbon, a product design graduate from Coventry University, quit his day job to completely focus on his shoe company which had grown in his first year and a half thanks to various professional riders wearing his work.
He thanked his university for helping him get this far: "I use many of the skills I learned and mastered at uni every day, from computer aided design, to Photoshop and model making.
“I loved my time at Coventry University, and my advice to those who are still studying is to enjoy the course and absorb as much as you can.
"Be open minded about jobs, you have so much time to explore and try things. And if you have a side hustle you’ve been working on, give it a shot and grow it patiently without thinking about the money."
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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