September 1, 1919.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



The Manufacture of Rubber and Fabric Shoes. 



India rubber is the great supflantcr. Just as rubber hose dispossessed leather hose, the rubber bottle the superheated 

 brick, and the rubber tire that of wood and iron, so rubber and fabrie shoes are uiiining against leather in the footwear Held. 

 In this crusade the so-called "Tennis" shoe was and is the entering ivedge. 



iherelore has come about that "Kcds" and their analogs 



THE TENNIS SHOE, sand-shoc, or "sneaker," with its variants 

 for yachting, gj'mnasium, basket-ball, etc., was for years 

 ■ a minor part of the rubber footwear business. It was not 

 esteemed either by maker, marketer or user. Oftimes it was 

 made of the cheapest inaterials, hastily thrown together and 



while they are still tennis shoes, show a vast improvement over 

 their prototypes of the dry-heat days. A tennis shoe to-day, of 

 the best type, has all of the lines of the best of leather footwear. 

 It has a solid rubber heel, a counter that is generous and 



rs?|fP| 



DiEiNG Out Ten 



the product stored in bins by the retailer to be pawed over 

 by the bargain hunters and the slip-shod. 



For many years the bulk of the tennis goods showed black 

 soles. This was simply because the old-time dry-heat com- 

 pounds called for litharge to effect the cure, the heat being 

 some seven hours. White soles were sometimes brought out by 

 using zinc sulphide, anrl sume very excellent tans were produced. 



strong, and inside of the rubber outer sole is a fiber sole, in 

 place of the time-honored rag-filler, and over this a leather 

 inner sole and a kid heel-piece. The stitching, the lacings, the 

 celluloid-covered eyelets, the finish, all are first-class and really 

 elegant. 



The fact is, the tennis shoe is to-day an important factor in 

 the rubbershoe factory. Hence the lalioratory has taken up the 



With the success of the pressure cure and the use of accele- question of stocks and evolved for sole and heel those 

 rators former handicaps were removed and a much more varied that are light and yet wear-resisters. For cements, thanks to 

 line of goods produced. The quality was also notably increased. mixed catalyzers, they have so far beaten the old "yellow 



