April 1, 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



477 



Repairing Rubber Footwear — IF 



A New and Fast Growing Industry 



Borrowing from the Cobbler— F<x)t«ear Repair Prices— Stock (or Patching— Drying Before Patching— Applying Rubber Heels— Details of the New 



Miller Vulcanizer— Dillts Rubber Boot Repairer— Arthur Sole and Heel Mold Former— Arthur Plural Part Mold Vulcanizer— 



The Ferguson Vulcanizer — The Bast Shoe Vulcanizing Device 



BORROWING FROM THE COBBLER 



RUBBER BOOT AND SHOE REPAIR is today in its infancy. It stands 

 where tire repair did fifteen years ago and its progress will 

 probably be along similar lines. That is, the present tools, 

 machines and appliances will be superseded or added to until the 

 best and most effective remain. So too, instead of the repair sec- 

 tion for footwear occupying a dark congested corner, a light, 

 orderly department will be evolved. 



As the work has to do with shapes almost identical with leather 

 shoes there are doubtless many appliances used by the cobbler 

 that will be taken over. Take for example, the "jack" which is 

 used as a sort of anvil by the leather shoe repairer and for 

 working on rubber boots and shoes, and certainly has its value. 

 There are many types, they are simple and great time savers. 



And not only the cobbler suggests added equipment but the 

 leather shoe manufacturers as well. They are large users of rub- 

 ber cement for channel and inseam work. For this there is a 

 very effective channel cementing machine. Possibly it would 

 need some changing for rubber 

 shoe repair work, and quite a 

 volume of business to keep it 

 busy, but it would be clean, com- 

 pact and safe. 



FOOTWEAR REPAIR PRICES 



While much complaint has been 

 made in the large cities of the 

 United States of profiteering in 

 the repairing of leather shoes (the 

 charge for resoling and reheeling 

 of which has ranged from $2.50 

 to $4 a pair according to quality 

 of job and service) little or no 

 fault seems to have been found 

 with the prices charged by re- 

 pairmen who specialize in mend- 

 ing rubber footwear. Despite 

 the general advancement in over- 

 head and other expenses, the cost 

 of repairing rubber boots and 

 shoes has increased relatively little above the pre-war prices. 



The very best job in half-soling rubber boots is now from $1.50 

 to $1.75. and full soles with heels are put on arctics and rubber 

 boots for $2.25 to $2.75, the charge depending upon whether the 

 boots are children's or adults'. Tennis and other athletic shoes 

 with rubber soles worn down can be "retreaded" completely and 

 made to look like new (resoled and reheeled), for $1.50 to $1.75 

 a pair, according to the size of the shoe. Light-weight rubbers 

 are seldom brouglit in for repair. Repairmen say that the prices 

 quoted yield them a fair margin of profit and that it is always 

 higher in shops having up-to-date repair equipment. 



While the business of repairing leather shoes was given a 

 great impetus during and after the war, owing to the high price 

 of leather, etc., in the past year the rubber footwear repairing 

 industry has also been steadily forging ahead. While its growth 

 may not have been as swift as that of leather shoe repairing, 

 men who mend rubber footwear are confident that the develop- 

 ment of this line has been more substantial. They are inclined 

 to think that as leather shoe prices recede, as is now generally 



"Copyriehted bv Henry C. Penr«nn. Continued from The India Rubder 

 World. March 1, 1921, pages 397-<03. 



forecast, there will be a slackened demand for the services of 

 the men who mend such shoes, whereas no such slump is expected 

 in the rubber shoe repair line. This in part is because the prices 

 of rubber footwear have not been unduly inflated and there is 



The "Jack" 



Tennis Soling 



a steady improving demand for footwear made wholly or partly 

 "f rubber, most of which will sooner or later be overhauled by 

 llie rubber repair shop. Nor do the latter have to compete with 

 the very numerous home-repairers, who, reluctant about paying 

 the high prices charged by most leather shoe cobblers, mend their 

 own shoes. 



Speaking again of prices, it is interesting to consider the cost 

 of resoling leather shoes with rubber taps and cut soles and heels, 

 and tlie prices obtained for such work, as well as the conditions 

 that insure a good job. An average price on rubber fiber half- 

 soles of a nationally advertised brand is $1.25 or $2.50 for full 

 soles with rubber heels. The latter arc furnished and applied for 

 35, 50, 65 and in a few cases for 75 cents. 



Repairmen emphasize the fact that there is no economy "iiS 

 putting a rubber sole on a cheap leather shoe. They canttnd 

 that such a sole, no matter how high its quality, is doomed' from a 

 the start if it be applied to a papery composition insole. The latter- 

 soon begins to disintegrate and chafe the rubber sole so thaV tl-: 

 will split or burst across its center within three or four weeks. 

 Properly cemented, however, to an insole of good "siding"' leather 

 such as is found in the better class shoes, the rubber sole ofter* 

 gives excellent wear for a year. The manufacturers do not guar- 

 antee their soles for this reason. 



STOCK FOR PATCHING 



It is only fair to the big rubber shoe companies, the mechanical 

 goods manufacturers, and the shoe-findings men 

 to acknowledge that for years they offered patch'- 

 iiig iiiaterjal to whoever wished to buv it. For 



I K II I IJ M eu 



iJiMflflli 



ttiitiniit 



Boot and Shoe Soling 



Soling Cut to Size 



example, the makers of the Snag-Proof rubbers long had a line 

 that they called repair sundries. These consisted of corrugated 

 soles for boots and shoes, cut to size, thus saving waste. There 

 was also patching for upper repairs, plain soles and heels. Withj 



