About Our Company

Dowsons Shoes is a name that has been synonymous with providing good value in quality shoes and footwear for over seventy years.

It's a reputation that the company is justifiably proud of and one that has underlined Dowsons business approach since the company was started in Christchurch, by Knox Dowson in 1938.

The family-owned and operated business originated as a footwear manufacturer selling shoes to local retailers and moved into premises in Ferry Road, a location that continues to carry the company name as a retail shop to this day.

With the advent of the Second World War, the factory diverted it's manufacturing business into supporting the war effort by supplying troops with boots and shoes.
After the war, the company turned it's attention from making footwear to selling footwear, still operating from the original Ferry Road location.

The success of selling footwear direct to the public  influenced Knox's son Keith to begin driving the company in a new direction. In 1952, Dowsons began to phase out their manufacturing operations in favour of out-sourcing a quality range of footwear that could be distributed and sold to the public through a series of Dowsons Shoes outlets around the city and further afield.

The following decade saw rapid expansion by the company as many retail outlets were opened and some subsequently closed. This was during a period of intense retail change within New Zealand as the company, like many others of the time, fought to establish a niche market with consumers.

Dowsons New Brighton shop, opened in 1954, took full advantage of that suburbs unique position as one of the only shopping centres of the time allowed to trade on Saturday.

Above: Dowsons Shoes Christchurch central city shop at 68 Lichfield Street.

By bringing a wide range and variety of quality, practical and fashionable footwear to customers at a consistently affordable price, Dowsons established a position in the marketplace which continued to strengthen throughout the late Sixties and Seventies.

Above: Dowsons Shoes central city shop and Christchurch Head Office and distribution centre at 68 Lichfield Street.

It was during this time that the company began sourcing quality product from further afield as the New Zealand footwear manufacturing industry began to shrink and eventually, all but disappear.

Dowsons Shoes however, continued to grow and more shops were opened as the company expanded.

In Christchurch, additional Dowsons Shoe shops opened in Church Corner in 1972, Papanui in 1978, and in 2006 a mall store in The Hub, Hornby.

In 1981, the company established both a trading shop and a Head Office distribution centre in a landmark Christchurch building in Lichfield Street.  The three storey building was one of the earliest of Christchurch's commercial buildings, originally constructed in 1884 and had only two previous owners before the company purchased it.

In 1995, Dowsons Shoes began expanding the company through the South Island, opening first in Dunedin and subsequently in Invercargill, Nelson, Timaru and Blenheim before opening their first North Island shop in Wellington.

Today, the company is still the same family owned business that it was when it first opened over seventy years ago.

While the faces, shops, fashions and footwear sold over that time may have changed, the principles that underline the company's brand reputation has not -

Dowsons Shoes - Always Good Value.