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It all began in 2008 when our founder Will began to run out of space for his ever-expanding trainer collection. Having dabbled on eBay successfully selling Mega Drive games, niche collectable CD’s and a single sachet of tomato sauce (who knew there was demand for such items?!) Will discovered that he could sell his trainers online for huge mark-up prices. Kerching! Within days Will’s trainers started being snapped up by eBay hunting shoe fanatics as far away as Japan and South Korea. Boom! Heading into 2009 Will’s niche-spotting intuitions were channelled into importing and selling all sorts of things on eBay, all from his spare room in Derbyshire. Popular trainer listings were swiftly joined by calculator watches, make-up and school uniforms. How eclectic.
Launched Will and Lizzie turn their attentions and expansion plans to the Amazon Marketplace and Fulfilment by Amazon. Lizzie In Our Staff Uniform In 2012 Will’s school friend Lizzie decides to leave her job (bye bye 2 hour commute) to run the rapidly growing business with him. 7 North is officially born.
Will and Lizzie start to miss the rainy fells of the lake district (where they both grew up) and decide to move back up north, establishing their new office in Carlisle.
Inspired by walks around the Lake District and Lizzie’s new interest in wild swimming, Will dreams up the first versions of our Eden Aquasport Water Shoe which goes on to become an Number 1 bestseller on Amazon. Our brand 55 Sport is launched! These bright reflective slap bands (safety first when running at night!) become the first 55 Sport product listed on Amazon. The river Eden reaches record heights in Carlisle and destroys many homes across the city. Our storeroom narrowly avoids getting washed away.
Our hero brand Lakeland Active launches! Starting with our popular Mosedale Walking Boot Bag (inspired by Will’s muddy boots), the brand quickly builds momentum on Amazon featuring water shoes, sandals, sunglasses and laces all within the first year. The business keeps growing along with our team! Outgrowing our space in central Carlisle we move to a bigger warehouse in Dalston on the outskirts of the city.. Sales of our new 55 Sport football studs kick off on Amazon.
2017 2018 7 North Carlisle Cumbria UK Timeline Our Kilter brand launches with a super-comfortable moulded flip-flop known as the Pulsar. Our Kilter shoelace listings start becoming popular on Amazon. Building upon the success of our boot bags, water shoes and sandals Will decides to introduce garden clogs into the Lakeland Active mix. Our Lorton Clogs launch on Amazon and become immediately popular with gardeners (and people taking out the bins) all over the UK.Our Lakeland Active hero product the Rydal Wellington Boot launches in two colours for both men and women. Our glasses case brand Lago Terra launches on Amazon. The unusual name actually translates to ‘lake land’ in Italian - another nod to our Cumbrian roots! Our new wellies and clogs have clearly made an exciting impact on our business. At the end of 2018 we reach a milestone moment, the revenue generated from our own brand products overtakes revenue from our third-party brands for the first time.
2019 2020 7 North Carlisle Cumbria UK Company Timeline Throughout 2019 our number of products continues to grow across all our brands. We introduce more clogs (oh so many colours), a whole range of football accessories, more sunglasses, more clogs, more wellies, more water shoes and a rainbow of new glasses cases. In 2020 as the nation goes into lockdown and rekindles a love for their garden, our gardening accessories brand Thistlewood is born. Our wonderful warehouse team work like tireless machines to keep up with the lockdown boom in online sales. Will gets dragged back into the warehouse to pack clogs, laces, water shoes, football pumps and wellies at all hours of the day
2021 7 North Carlisle Cumbria UK Timeline, Our Team Keeps Growing, Pushed into hyperdrive by the 2020 sales explosion Will and Lizzie focus on rapidly growing our team handpicking talented experts in graphic design, online advertising, photography, website design, copy, content and product design. Saying 2021 was a busy year is an understatement.
2022, 7 North Carlisle Cumbria UK Timeline, In 2022 with our Lakeland Active brand popularity growing by the month (#GetLakelandActive), we decide to launch our first own brand website lakelandactive.co.uk Within weeks our Thermal Lorton Clogs featured on ITV’s This Morning (oh the excitement in the office!) and we became inundated with customers demanding cosy garden footwear in a rainbow of colours. New warehouse.. Outgrowing yet another warehouse (we seem to make a habit of this), we move to our largest ever purpose designed fulfilment centre in summer 2022. Based in Kingmoor Park in Carlisle our new warehouse is the size of a Premier League football pitch, 61,814 sqft to be exact.
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JOIN OUR TEAM.

As our number of best selling products has grown, so has our lovely team. From Will's spare bedroom to a warehouse the size of a football pitch in Carlisle, we're always looking for talented people to join our team. Fancy joining us? 

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