OLD METHODS FOR NEW STYLE SHOES

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29992, 29 November 1962, Page 13

OLD METHODS FOR NEW STYLE SHOES

The long, narrow shape of the shoes worn by young men today is no problem to the shoe repairer he has been mending shoes like these for years. “They have the same construction as women’s shoes,” said the manager of one shoe repair shop, “and we treat them the same way.” He said some young men even bring in their new shoes to have a couple of extra “lifts,” or layers of leather, added to the already high, tapered heels. When the heels reach that height, about the only difference from women’s shoes is the size. Something they have in common, according to the shoe repairers, is the oversized feet that are sometimes forced into them.

It is the day of the slim line—in figure, clothes and footwear—and that look has been sold to everyone who cares about appearance, including those with fat, wide, flat and knobbly feet It is the shoes that suffer. Some arrive at the repair shops with torture written all over their uppers. The narrow tapered shape has been bludgeoned into submission by a big flat foot until the soft leather of the upper has been forced down on to the road as a sideways extension of the sole. The holes that result can be repaired, but the shoe tends to retain the shape of the wearer’s foot rather than the shape of the maker’s last. Repairers have noticed too that it is the upper that gets damaged by ordinary wear and tear with these long narrow shoes, and not the welt around the sole. More oldfashioned and heavier shoes have a thick welt around them which acts as a buffer, but the shoes being sold to young men today have soles less than an eighth of an inch thick. The soles are made of plastic in many cases and are only one third as thick as leather soles. Consequently, the upper comes within only a fraction of an inch of the ground and is a target for all sorts of knocks and scrapes.

Some people ask for a thicker, more solid sole to be sewn on to the shoe after the first has worn through. But these light Italian-style shoes are not really designed for repeated rejuvenations. The makers expect them to have a life of about six months, and then to be replaced with another pair. As with women’s shoes, there is no foot in a considerable length of the narrow pointed toe. So the surplus shoe past the wearer's toe bends independently of the rest of the shoe, and repairers find holes worn through at that point Tested New Zealand shoe manufacturers are now carrying out experiments on a number of new designs, styles and methods, in line with the policy of having every type of shoe thoroughly wear-tested before it is introduced to the market. This has become necessary, according to the “Retailer”—official journal of the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation—because of the great increase in the volume of footwear produced by increasing numbers of factories.