Legendary city shop shaped Liverpool’s 80s and 90s fashion

A legendary Liverpool shop spent 20 years at the forefront of fashion in Liverpool and left a lasting legacy.

This year marks 40 years since Wade Smith first opened in the city centre and it is still remembered for shaping a distinctive Liverpool style. Decades ago, founder Robert Wade Smith, originally from Bradford, was introduced to Liverpool as an apprentice for Adidas, travelling to the city at weekends to stock their concessions.

Spotting a niche in the market, he noticed the city’s love of rare and designer trainers, which inspired him to open his own business. In 2002, he said: “I was stocking shops like Topman and saw the trainers phenomenon which exploded in the late 1970s.

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

“In Liverpool it was largely generated by football fans travelling around Europe and bringing back rare trainers. I was keen to start my own business and what better opportunity would there be.”

With £500 cash and a £10,000 overdraft, Robert opened a store at 11 Slater Street in November 1982. Trips to Europe hunting the rarest trainers followed and the shop was soon selling shoes as quickly as they could get them.

Through the years, a trip to Liverpool city centre wasn’t complete without visiting Wade Smith. For many, it was the first place they bought a pair of trainers or were introduced to popular fashion trends of the 80s and 90s.

Before the days of Wade Smith, Adidas trainers were still predominantly associated with sports stars and not the high street. In the 80s, the store built its success on the back of the humble Trimm Trab, an Adidas training shoe and by the 1990s, Wade Smith leaned further into high fashion and would become something of a celebrity attraction for its imports of high fashion brands like Prada and Gucci, the ECHO previously reported.

What are your favourite Scouse fashion trends through the years? Let us know in the comments section below.

The ECHO recently delved into our archives to find these brilliant photos of inside Wade Smith on Mathew Street. Some, unseen for years, capture what inside the store looked like at one point in time, as well as what customers could then buy.

Many will associate these brands and items with Scouse fashion trends from years ago. One image captures an array of colourful shirts on display, with a pair of Nike trainers below, next to a pair of Reebok trainers.

In another image, you can see a wider shot from inside the Mathew Street store years ago. Here, you can see less sportswear on display and instead, the mannequins dressed in polo shirts and one even in a suit and tie.

Another standout image was taken in May 2000 outside of the store. Everton defender Michael Ball and Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard, wearing head to toe Adidas, took a special delivery of Adidas’ then newly-launched Predator Precision football boots.

The players were on hand as the Wade Smith store waited for the arrival of its first pair of the revolutionary boots. Many will remember the store as it looks in these photographs, or owning some of the clothing items or shoes on display at the time.

Last year, the ECHO spoke to former employee Chris Lee about being at the heart of all things Wade Smith in the 80s and 90s. Chris previously said: “In those days, the sportswear industry hadn’t really taken off.

“Trainer shoes or trainees as we used to call them were used for sport and only sports shops sold them, like Jack Sharp. Wade Smith helped moved that over to what they called a more casual scene.

“We had people from around the country coming up. One time five guys from Birmingham came up and all of them bought two pairs each to take home to their mates and Robert Wade Smith gave them £5 back for the petrol on the way back to Birmingham.

“Most of the time, people in those days only got clothes for your birthday, Christmas, or Easter. It’s changed now – there wasn’t even Sunday opening in those days, but you didn’t have a massive wardrobe when you were 16, 17, 18 so you were very careful about what you’d buy.

“It was a big investment for someone or someone’s mother to shell out £30 for a pair of trainers in those days.” Expanding from trainers to offer other fashion footwear, womenswear, childrenswear, leisurewear and more, Wade Smith also gravitated towards a new fashion trends with its offer of Nike Air Max and tracksuits.

As the 1990s wore on, Wade Smith leaned further into high fashion. Chris said: “There were more Liverpool footballers than Everton and I’m an Everton supporter, but the Liverpool lads were always in.

“We had Steve McManaman, Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Fowler, Phil Thompson, Kenny Daglish, David James, Michael Owen.” Through the years, Chris began to travel to trade shows across the UK, Europe and America to find inspiration from popular trends abroad and bring them back to Liverpool.

A lot of brands started creating their own concepts with Wade Smith By 1989, the shop was an established name and had set up at a more elaborate premises on Mathew Street, but after changing hands with the Arcadia Group, Wade Smith eventually shut its doors in 2005. But the memory of Wade Smith lives on.

Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what’s on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here