Page 29 - Shoeman no ch 1

CHAPTER 3
Goodyear Welted Plant
This was the only construction used when I joined the company in 1954. The upper is lasted to a last on which an insole has been temporarily attached. The insole has a raised channel just in from its perimeter, then a welt is sewn into the shoe, the thread going through the upper and insole channel. A sole is stitched to the welt, a heel is attached, and then the sole and heel trimmed and scoured to shape and nished with stain and wax. Then the sole bottom is nished. Welted is a stitched together construction and started life as a hand-made construction. In Northamptonshire, and particularly in the Rothwell area, most of the Victorian terraced houses have a ‘barn’ at the bottom of the garden. These are brick-built almost to the same speci - cation as the house. The barn was a workshop for out workers who sewed in welts and stitched soles on by hand before the machines were used. In the early 1900’s, in keeping with his country’s industrial rapid progress, an American from Boston, Massachusetts, developed mechanisation for the process. His name, as you can guess, was Mr Goodyear. This has proved a very versatile process for our company, in spite of having up to 40 separate operations in the construction after lasting the upper. Now to give you a knowledge of the types of welted shoes we have made over almost 70 years of making the product until we closed the plant in 1999 – a sad day.
CLASSICS
In 1954, Regardless of the demands of fashion-led product, classic designs were always a proportion of our welted plant production. The classic designs being cap Oxfords, brogues, tie-up Gibson’s and the occasional boot. The home market was our main outlet but also, when I joined the company, we were exporting to Switzerland, Malta and the Caribbean. The contact having been made by the customers who then bought our product. We later expanded into Russia in the communist era, France, Australia, USA, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong and Germany. Later, with our close asso- ciation with Clarks, we made all the classic welted shoes for their home market plus orders for the Middle East and Africa. This included product for military and police contracts. We also used Clarks brand for their Italian distributor in Verona, Italy and their distributor in Hong Kong.
In the late 60’s and 70’s, our American market developed well. Also, in this case, the initial contact was made by the customer. We had continuity business with principal