CHAPTER FIVE

HOW SHOE STYLES ARE MADE

If you examine the shoes worn by people in a large city, you will notice different styles. Shoe styles that were called grotesque a few seasons ago are comparatively usual to-day, for the new designs in women’s footwear, which manufacturers are now making, are the most varied that ever have been put on the market. Pink and green and blue are among the new colors in materials for footwear.

Some of the styles for the coming seasons are more lavish than have hitherto been seen in the women’s shoe trade of America. Coronation purple velvet boots look like an extravagant color for footwear, but they are now selling. Samples of pink, green, and blue shoes, both boots and pumps, are being made up, and they will soon be offered to buyers.

The style of the shoe is dominated by fashion. All styles are related, that is, every part of our dress is influenced by the prevailing fashion, ideas of color, fabric, or garment outline. To illustrate: when short skirts are stylish, women wear mannish shoes to harmonize with them; on the other hand, with long skirts they must have a shoe that is neat and small, hence, the short vamp. When women wear white in the summer, cool canvas shoes spring into favor; when gray and blue dress materials are to be used, a variety of tan shoes are worn to harmonize, etc.

After the style has been decided upon, it is necessary to work out an exact reproduction. An expert model maker, called a last maker, produces a last, a wooden model of the shoe. In order to do this, it is necessary to lay out certain plans or specifications for the details of the manufacturer of the shoe.

There are certain parts of all feet that have fixed measurements. To illustrate: the length of the shank, that part of the sole of the foot between the heel and ball, in every person’s foot is always the same. The part of the foot back of the ball or large toe joint conforms to certain fixed measurements. These definite measurements form a basis by which the last maker originates new styles by shortening, lengthening, widening, or narrowing the space in front of the toes, but always retaining the true and fixed measurements of the back part of the last.

When the last maker desires to produce a new style, he takes an old last and tacking pieces of leather on some parts of it (front of the toes), he builds it up and cuts off other parts. This patched-up last is taken to a special machine (lathe), where a number of duplicates are turned from a block of wood.

The “pattern maker” is the man in the factory who makes patterns, consisting of heavy pieces of cardboard bound with brass, in the shapes of the various pieces of leather required to make up the upper part of the shoe.

The pattern maker has found by experience that the top part of the shoe also conforms to certain fixed measurements, and by working in sympathy with the last maker he need only to change the front part of the vamp to bring out the latter’s ideas. With these measurements as a foundation, he puts forth from time to time different style uppers, as buttons, lace, blucher, fixings, scrolls, straps, ties, pumps, etc. This is the way new style tops originate.

After the manufacturer has approved of sample patterns, the pattern maker receives an order for a certain quantity of patterns to be made over a certain last which is submitted to him. Working on the fixed top measurements and the last submitted as a basis, the pattern maker draws plans for a model pattern. The standard size of a model pattern is size 7 in men’s shoes and size 4 in women’s. He is also given an order for a certain number of widths; for instance, B, C, D, and E, and he draws out on paper a complete set for each width in the size 7. These four sets of model patterns are reproduced and cut out in sheet iron by hand. But from these sheets any number of iron models, and any size regular cardboard pattern can be reproduced by a machine.

Wood to be made into lasts comes to the shoe manufacturers in a rough, unchiseled form. The lasts are made of maple wood; hollow forms used by traveling salesmen and window trimmers are made of bass wood.

The making of the model of the last is the most exacting operation in the factory. It is produced by a machine most important. The principle of this machine has been brought about by the pantograph; that is, it will turn from a rough block of wood an exact copy of the model last; or it will enlarge or reduce a duplicate of any other size or width, so, from a single model last, such as the manufacturer has decided on, any number of lasts can be made, and of any size or width. The machine itself consists of two lathes. On one is placed the model and on the other the block of wood. The model is held against a wheel by a spring. By adjusting this wheel, any desired width last can be obtained, and by adjusting a bar in front of the machine any length last can be produced from the block of wood.

The lathe, when in motion, revolves both the last and the model, the model being pressed against the wheel, which is really a guide for the revolving knife that digs into the block of wood, and regulates the depth that the knife is allowed to cut. In this manner the model is reproduced from the block which is also regulated as to size and width by the wheel and by the bar. This machine is so accurate that a tack driven into the model to locate the center of the last is reproduced by a sort of a wooden pimple in the block of wood when finished. The model sole pattern is now tried on the half-finished last to insure accuracy.

Notice in the figures of lasts that the turning lathe has left stubs of wood on the toes and heels. These must be finished to a “templet.” The templet is a measure or guide used to indicate the shape any piece of work is to assume when finished. From the heel and toe of the model, a piece of iron is shaped on an exact arc of that model, and is used on the heeler machine as a guide to form an exact copy of the heels and toes of the model. This machine works very rapidly, and by the aid of an irregular shaped, revolving knife it quickly transforms the toes and heels to the desired shape. The bottoms are again tried out on a sole pattern and the last number, the size and the width are stamped on.

We now have the last as a solid piece of maple wood and turned to the desired shape, size and width. Were it possible to insert and extract the last in this form from the half-finished shoe, no other steps would be necessary in last manufacture, but inasmuch as the leather is stretched very tightly over this last a little later, it necessitates the introduction of some method that will facilitate a quick removal of the last from the shoe. This is accomplished by cutting it in two parts and making a hinged heel. The fact that the slightest measurement changes the size of the shoe, necessitates great care in the introduction of the hinge as a part of the last, and in order to insure accuracy and uniformity in all the lasts, they are marked with templets and gigs. The hinge must be placed inside of the last.

The finished last is so constructed that it can be readily inserted or withdrawn from the shoe, and the strong hinge provides the last, when inserted, with the same rigid qualities as though it were one piece. The center of the last is indicated, as before stated, by a reproduction in the side of the last of the tack that was placed in the model. This is the mark that locates the position of all the holes, and it is done by a “gig” in the following manner:--

A gig is a piece of steel having cylinders that guide the bit of the boring machine in an exact perpendicular line. This gig, being placed on the last in the position marked by the turning machine, forms the accurate location of the bolt holes that hold the hinge.

After the hinge is placed in the last, it goes to the ironers to have the bottom put on it, if it is a McKay last, and a heel plate if it is a welt. The bottom is again tried and the plate filled up to the same. The last is then ready to go to the scouring room. In this room the last goes through three operations, first of which is ruffing. This consists of scouring with a coarse grade of quartz. This operation must be carried on so that the sole lines and insteps are not brought into contact with the quartz.

The second operation, medium grinding, is done with a fine grade of quartz, and in this operation, also, the worker keeps away from the toe. The third operation is done with a much finer-grade quartz, the operator going over the entire last. The last is now ready for polishing, and after that, for a heavy coat of shellac. It is polished and waxed on a leather wheel. Then it goes into the shipping room ready for shipment to the manufacturer.