Design Shoes
SNEAKERS: AN INSIGHT TO THE BOOMING INDUSTRY OF RUBBER SHOES
If you walk around and ask how many people own a pair of rubber shoes in your neighborhood, the chances are that everyone would say that they do. So, where did rubber shoes come from, and what makes them so great? Not only will we look at how sneakers were made, but we will also look at how the sneaker industry became well of fortune for modern-day companies. Such companies include that outright dominant Nike and Adidas, as well as Pumas and Reeboks.
HISTORY OF SNEAKERS
Period of origin: 19th century
Some people credit the inventors or rather the introductions of rubber soles, Liverpool Rubber Company, as sneakers' inventors. Their opening of a canvas top shoe with a rubber sole called the plimsoll was made in the 1830s. Yes! The 1830s.
The rubber shoes made by Liverpool Rubber Company were a famous beach ware during the time. They were named plimsolls during the 19th century due to the band that was used to connect the rubber sole to the canvas top since it resembles a plimsoll line. We can also say that the name was given to the rubber shoe because when water passed this rubber band, the wearer would get wet just like when water goes over a ship's plimsoll line. These speculations are according to popular writer Eleanor Farjeon in her book The Plimsoll sensation. For clarification, a plimsoll line is also known as the international load line or waterline of a ship. The bar is used to guide seamen by indicating the draft of a particular vessel. It is also used when loading a boat to tell the maximum amount of load a ship can withstand without affecting the vessel buoyancy.
People later adopted canvas rubber shoes from beach outfit to athletic use. This was especially common among croquet and tennis players. Why did they adopt them? It lies in the shoe features; plimsolls were comfier, lighter, and quite flexible, a revolutionary part as they did not hinder athletes' movements like other shoes at the time. Plimsolls underwent further development into having soles with an engraved surface at the bottom to provide a better grip. The addition of a grip surface was so outstanding that the Liverpool Rubber Company received a bulk order from the British Army. Other additions and improvements were made to make them ideal for their use by troops.
With the evolving features of plimsolls, they gained a lot of interest among athletes. This is because they were in desperate need of a flexible shoe, yet giving them the required amount of grip. Despite the progressive developments, plimsolls still remained a favorite among those using them for leisure and simple outdoor activities. As a matter of fact, they were so popular that a pair made its way to the ill-fated Terra Nona expedition that was on course to the geographic South Pole.
The first rubber-soled running shoes were designed and made in 1895 by Briton Joseph William Foster, founder of the company J.W. Foster and sons (athletic shoes) limited. The founder was born in the year 1881 and was trained as a cobbler from his earlier years. In 1895 as a local harrier member, he started to work on shoes in a room above the father’s sweet shop in Bolton. This is where he designed the first-ever rubber running shoes. They featured a spiked sole to provide traction for running. After his ideas caught wind and kicked off, he established a business J.W. Foster. This was in the year 1900. He built a factory and named it Olympic Works. Later on, in the year 1910, his sons became partners in the business, and he rebranded the company as J.W. Foster and Sons. Foster marketed and sold his revolutionary running shoes to athletes worldwide. He eventually got the British athletics team's attention and was able to acquire a tender to manufacture sports shoes for them. The contract was meant for the 1924 Olympics. Astonishingly the 100m and 400m races were both won by athletes who were fitting Foster’s running shoes that were nicknamed running pumps by athletes. The company continued to make athletic shoes and was so renowned that they were contracted to make army boots for the British army during the first and second world wars. In 1976, after some trifling times, Reebok took ownership of the company.
As for North America, rubber-soled footwear became popular towards the end of the 19th century. According to the Boston journal of 1887, the name sneakers came from ball-boys in North America's tennis courts to refer to these rubber-soled shoes. This was due to how silent they were or if you like 'sneaky’ since they made little noise on the court compared to their competitors, the classic leather sole dress shoes. The U.S. Rubber Company, in 1892, had a nationwide campaign purposely to introduce rubber sole shoes to American citizens. This led to a continent-wide interest in the rubber shoe, kick-starting the sneaker industry in America. Spalding designed the first rubber shoes for basketball by the year 1907. But the big break for sneakers in the States was yet to come.