Meet the SATRA team: Scott Jarvis

This first in a series of articles on members of the SATRA footwear team introduces a very experienced section leader.

Scott Jarvis graduated from the UK’s University of Leicester with a degree in microbiology in the late nineties. However, it quickly became apparent that there were few opportunities for employment which required his new qualification. Willing to expand his search, Scott saw an advertisement for an ‘assistant footwear technician’ with a UK company, and in 1998, he was successful in his job application. His new employer acted as the procurement and sourcing company between a major high street retailer and manufacturers of women’s fashion, comfort and ‘everyday’ footwear.

“Without any footwear industry experience, it was a case of ‘learning on the job’,” says Scott. “Luckily I had great manager, and with several sourcing trips to Portugal, I was able to get good level of knowledge about fitting, product development and technical requirements.”

After two years, he was promoted to the role of technologist responsible for developing and sourcing new products from Vietnam. This demand quickly grew from 150,000 pairs per year to 500,000 pairs by 2003, requiring an increased number of country visits.

Overseas responsibilities

Eventually a permanent move to Vietnam was required to handle the ever-growing demands of the range. Scott was later made country manager with responsibilities for overseeing all the company footwear sourcing for production across men’s, women’s and children’s shoes, as well as formal, fashion and sports designs. During this time, the quantity of footwear involved grew to 2.5 million pairs per year across all categories.

Scott’s role in Vietnam involved day-to-day liaison with UK-based product designers and technologists. It also encompassed managing a small team of technicians while working with both local and joint venture factories in the processes of material sourcing, product development, production quality control, packaging and shipping schedules – not to mention social compliance.

In 2008, Scott left the supplying company to join a renowned UK high street retailer. He was still based in Vietnam and managed a small team working directly with factories. “But only six months later, the global ‘credit crunch’ hit and I lost my job,” he explains. “At this time, no companies were hiring, so in December 2008 with a heavy heart I moved with my family back to the UK.”

The next chapters

Finally, a suitable role became available, and Scott became the technical manager for a brand offering women’s formal shoes and manufacturing in both the UK and India. This involved working with designers to create a shoe from concept to production, and included such aspects as last development, fitting, pattern amendments, technical requirements, pre-production auditing and risk assessment, production quality control and pricing. He travelled to Agra and Chennai, and their surrounding areas four times each year to oversee these tasks.

Scott had been using SATRA’s services since 1998, so was well aware of the organisation’s reputation within the footwear industry. Then in June 2022, he actually joined SATRA as a senior technologist.

“In a way, my career has gone ‘full circle’,” he remarks. “I’m now in a position as a senior member of the SATRA team to help others to overcome their problems with a variety of footwear products, just as some of my current colleagues used to do for me throughout my career.”

In January of the following year, Scott was promoted to the position of technical lead, heading up the team responsible for the related areas of outsoles, underfoot comfort and whole shoe testing. During his tenure, he has helped to reduce lead times for testing within the department and has been heavily involved in much of the training that SATRA offers.

“SATRA has the expertise and the ability to resolve technical problems with all types of footwear, which are really complex items,” Scott confirms. “Not only must a shoe look good, but a wide variety of materials, components and construction methods are used that all must be understood to get the right balanced between fit, performance and cost. Testing is a really important tool to give an idea of ‘real life’ use of a product and helps members to assess any risks faced by their footwear – or even caused by it.”

We will introduce more members of the SATRA team in future articles.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 30 of the May 2026 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

Other articles from this issue »

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