GRASS SHOES That Outlast LEATHER

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1164, 3 November 1917, Page 12 (Supplement)

GRASS SHOES That Outlast LEATHER

ESPARTO shoes, or shoes made of the toughe3t and strongest of the coarse fibres, are still worn in Iberia and in some parts' of Spain and Portugal. There is no shoe made which will outlast them, not excepting leather shoes. One pair of Esparto shoes, it is claimed, will outwear about a dozen tanned hide soles. . This is due fo their faculty of picking up and retaining in their interstices stony or gritty particles which wear like nails. As the shoes are worn they constantly pick up and retain these foreign particles, and as fast as these are worn out they are replaced automatically by others, providing the wearer of the shoes continues his walking. Thus a self-soling process is constantly going on. "It is not uncommon in some parts of Spain or Portugal to hear the natives boast of wearing a pair of Esparto shoes for 25 years or more," says a writer in Popular Science Monthly. "The soles will survive an aggregate exceeding 6000 miles of walking without wearing away appreciably. "Several years ago an attempt was made by an American concern to manufacture the shoes in quan-

titles large enougu tu uupyij' me demand from abroad. A plant was built, people were engaged, contracts for the delivery of the fibre

were closed and the manufacturing was begun. "This did not continue long, however, for it developed that the company was obtaining an inferior grade of coarse fibre with the result that their shoes were not wearing well. Accordingly, the company went into bankruptcy, with a net loss, It is said, running well into five hundred thousand dollars. At the present time genuine Esparto shoes are to be obtained only in the foreign sections of some of the large cities. "The Esparto fibre is also largely used in the European paper industry under the name of Esparto grass. It makes a paper of excellent durability, but American paper makers have not used it. It-requires expert knowledge in its treatment. Esparto shoes are largely made and worn in the rural districts of France. "For a comfortable shoe for allround wear the Esparto shoe has no peer. Those who have worn them never put them aside for leather shoes. At first the shoes are very soft, simulating velvet, but after they have been worn for a short time they become as solid and hard as leather."