City in Sound; Florsheim

This is Jack Angel with city and sound. These are stories out of Chicago, city of all things. One among them, big time shoemaker. Shoemaker with one of the biggest lasts in the industry is the Floreshyme shoe company, fitting the nation from large facilities here in Chicago. There, modern shoemaking, a bounds in style, engineering and science is a good fit in our series for science calling. Mr. SF Egan is vice president and charge of manufacturing at Floreshyme shoe company, which must indeed be a tremendous manufacturing operation. And I'd like to know, Mr. Egan, is this the largest shoe operation in town? There is no question about that. Floreshyme shoe company, practically the only shoe manufacturer left in the city of Chicago. This company operates three plants, making a total of

13 ,000 pairs of shoes per day, both men's and women's. Well, that's a lot of production there, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's substantial, particularly in the grades that the Floreshyme shoe company operates in as a higher price range, and there is no other manufacturer in the country that makes as many shoes in a price range that Floreshyme shoe company makes in their Chicago operations. We've come to think customarily of the shoe industry as a New England operation, Mr. Egan, at least those of us who are not as familiar to the industry as are you. How did it happen that Floreshyme got out here in Chicago? Well, Floreshyme shoe company had been operating in the city of Chicago since 1892. That would make the company 66 years old this year. It was started by Mr. Milton Floreshyme and his brothers, and it had been carried on for the last number of years by his two sons, Mr. Irving Floreshyme, the chairman of the board, Mr. Herald Floreshyme, the president

of the business. I gather the reason that started in Chicago is because the Floreshyme just happened to live here. I would suppose that would be the case. Nothing unusual or significant about that. No. Okay, about the manufacturer of shoes. Is this done on a production line basis like many other products in modern industry? No, quite the contrary, because of the many problems that are inherent in the size and width condition of existing shoes, as well as the styles and the coloring phases of our shoe manufacturing business. The production of shoes today can more properly be termed a mechanized craft, rather than a highly mechanized business as or a conveyorized business as exists in some other type of mechanical industries. Well, we used to think of the shoe business as a craft business, sort of

customized and individual workmanship because of the many thousands of feet and styles, and the particular demands of the individual. Is that still pretty much whole true in the industry? Yes, style is a very important part and has a great impact on our ability to manufacture and the number of people used in the production of shoes. Mr. Reagan, how do you go about making a pair of shoes? What are the steps of production? We try, like every efficient business, to plan the production of these shoes so that we can develop and create as much efficiency and putting these shoes together as it is humanly possible, consistent with the many problems of style, sizes, and width that are inherent in our industry. Shoes, our operations, are started with the cutting and run through 200 to 250 operations, dependent upon the type of shoes, terminating with the final packing of the shoes in the boxes in which they're

shipped to the customers. But in that operation, there's an awful lot of work. In every operation, there's a lot of work and as I, when I mentioned a 200 to 250 operations per shoe, that means that these shoes, each shoe of the two in a pair, must be handled, at least as many times as there are operations in the shoe. Well, you do this in the Chicago area in three plants, right? Yes, there are three plants used for the manufacturer shoes in the Chicago area. One at our latest and newest manufacturing plant is at 130 South Canal Street. This plant was built. We are here now. This plant was built in 1949. The plant, established, previous to this last manufacturing unit, was built in the year of 1926 at Belmont and Harding. And two years prior to that, a large plant was built at the corner of

Belmont and Crawford Avenue, where today more than 5 ,000 pairs of shoes are being made in that plant. Totally, the company produces approximately 13 ,000 pairs of shoes per day in the Chicago area between the men's and women's operations. In addition to our manufacturing buildings, the company has just completed a very modern warehouse to further improve the efficiency of their operation and improve the service that's so necessary today in handling customer relation. This warehouse was built at the corner of Taylor and Clinton Street, and has added materially to the ability of the company to operate and increase its manufacturing facilities. Mr. John Reedy is vice president and charge in merchandising here at Floreshine,

and with all the thousands of foot sizes and the style problem that's quite a job, how about the style problem? How do you go about handling that one? Well, the style is really a development. I don't think that it is the origination of something. I think it's more a recognition of what is required on the part of the consumer. The best way to describe style is that style is what the consumer will buy at a given time, and it is our business to find out what that is. Well, men's styles don't change radically from year to year, but that must be quite a problem with women. It is more of a problem with women, but surprisingly enough, the men are becoming more style conscious every day as well. Well, now do you have Christian Dior's or their equivalents encounter parts in the shoe industry that design these things and then hope that the women will buy them the men too? Yes, there are designers. Men's and the women's business work quite a bit in a different manner. The women's shoes are based primarily on fashion and they

tie in with fashion, and that does not seem to be the basic approach in men's. Well, I'm Mr. Reedy. We're here in a sample room and I can see a displays of women's shoes and all kinds of colors, blues and oranges and pinks. You know, die those letters? No, we buy the letters in those colors. The tenor. The tenor. It pairs the have a hand in the development of a color. The tenor is in the same position we are. He is selling something to one of his customers who happens to be us. He develops a color that he feels will sell and he brings it into us and we give you more suggestions or are okay on the color. Well, this seems to be the year for pointed toes in women's shoes. Who determines how pointed they're supposed to be? How do you go about deciding that? Well, that is an interesting point when you say who decides how pointed they are going

to be. I think that basically the consumer decides. I think that you have to recognize and unhappiness on the part of the consumer with what you are offering at this time and you then have to say if there is this unrest or this feeling that they are looking for something new in what direction should this thing go? Yeah, but I mean, basically who determines? I mean, one year women are wearing round toes. The next year shoes come out with a pointed toe. Who says that these things have a point on them? The best way to explain it, I guess, is to tell you that there is a cycle that takes place and surprisingly enough, this cycle can be traced over many, many years. You will find that the toes, for example, which is the shape of the shoe and which is the very, one of the first things that enters a customer's mind will vary. They will go narrow and then they will go wide and this cycle will take sometimes as much as 40 years, 50 years and sometimes it will take place within a period of 10 or 20 years. You make these out of leather, of course, most of them.

Yes, we have found we and the public have found that up to date that leather has been the most satisfactory material for quality shoes. How about other materials that might come into the picture? I would say that the shoe industry in general and that the Floreshine shoe company in particular is always interested in new materials. In our particular case, there is a very important consideration. Will this material that we are talking about do a better job than what we are now using? Our primary concern is to make a better product and we are interested in anything that will help us do that. Well, this entails a lot of research, doesn't it? Research goes on all the time. We are continuously working with new materials and trying to develop them and trying to wind up with what we regard as an improvement over what we are doing now. Well, we're here now with Mr. Alex Kaplan, the Floreshine shoe factory itself, the actual production end of it. He's in charge of pattern making and designing, which really is the first step business Mr. Kaplan in making a shoe.

Well, like they usually say in human effaction, first you take the last. What exactly is the last? The last is a wooden form pattern after the shape of the foot with the proper measurements incorporated. Well, of course, now you can't get everybody's foot in here to make a last out of. So how do you compromise that factor? We have over 400 different style lasts in our business and I believe that ought to be enough to suit just about anybody that is wearing shoes. Well, that covers most of the needs. I would say it did. Yes. Well, that's a kind of a rare collection like valuable jewels and paintings, isn't it? The collection of those lasts? Well, we like to think so. We spend an awful lot of time in developing those last and

we believe we have to know how with all the years of experience that our combined executive personnel has. So we start here with the last and the pattern. Do you make the pattern sir that's made under your supervision? Patterns are made in our department and I have been associated with this department since 1928. Well, how do you make a pattern? The original pattern is made out of paper board after it's perfected. It's made out of a hard cardboard with a brass edging. What would it look like just to the untrained eye? Well, just visualize your shoe cut in half laid out on a flat surface. It would give you a fairly good idea of what to expect. Trying to like putting a globe of the world together. That's right. Very good. How about the factor of growth and science and

technology in this particular phase of it? Have there been any changes introduced recently in making these patterns or lasts? Or the last still made of wood as these are here I see and how the patterns change at all? There hasn't been too many changes that you could consider an important change. There have been improvements as the years gone. We have learned a tremendous amount from our World War II experiences with shoe pitting and footwear and last making and we're benefiting by all those lessons. Well, it hasn't been very tough for you to stick to your last know for how many years did you say 25? Well, I've been with Flowshine 37. 37. 25 or 30 of which were in the pattern end of it. I see. Well, the last is a mighty important first deal with it. It's sure is. Well, we've got the pattern. We've got the last and

now we're cutting the shoe itself, cutting the leather any event. And the cutting room is at Superintendent Martin Jacobson. And what are we doing here, Mr. Jacobson? Well, here we're taking and cutting the leather as it comes into our factory after it's been sorted for the quality of it. We shouldn't maintain these man -used patterns and a sharp knife to go around the patterns and a clicking machine which has a beam that strikes the die and puts the leather out. It's like a big cookie cutter. Just about something similar to that. But I notice there's a lot of hailwood, a lot of personal to tailwood. There it is. These man, of course, cutting by hand. They and the man by machine both know they're trade very well. They're skilled craftsmen. Whether they use the physical effort of a knife to cut, whether they use the machine, it brings the same product out to our standard of quality. So that actually the product here is a cut piece of leather in the shape that will be formed into a shoe. That's right. It's a series of pieces of leather that must be put together

in different parts of our factory after they've been cut here and put together to the best of the ability and to our standards. You have any idea how many pieces of leather are cut here a day? Well, we cut approximately 10 ,000 pair or more per day and you can multiply that by pieces and say there are about eight pieces to a pair using a normal shoe, a bumper leather. That's eight times 10 ,000 so you can figure out a lot of pieces are there. Well, when you bring on a new style, let's say in the ladies line, you have to have new forms. All new patterns. All new patterns are made by our pattern department. They're tried for a trial and error method. Take and see that we come up with the thing we exactly want. After that, it's put in a production if it shows that it's what we need for our business. Well, over the years, Mr. Taken, the actual process of cutting shoe leather has changed

very little. Well, there cannot be very much of a chain because we're still using the same hide of an animal and the animal hasn't changed. The character of the skin are the same now as they were 50 years ago. The animal still is growing on the range, skin to tan. Of course, the process of tanning has been developed greatly since that time and our leather is now so marked character than they did before, where they say using a term 15 or 20 years ago, there is not a lot of pigmentation put on the leather. Now, there's a clear, clean look, whether you look into it and you can see all the beautiful grain of leather now. But then, science has not so much to do with the actual cutting. No, the physical cutting of leather is the same as there was many years you can take. Mr. Justin Pryor is Assistant General Superintendent of the plant, would know how everything is put together here and let's put something together, Mr. Pryor. Well, the previous room we were

in was a cutting department from that department. As you saw, the work was all in a stage of a ready -for assembly. The next department will be the fitting department or the stitching department, upper leather stitching department. There, the various parts of the shoes are sold together. Okay, you've got it cut, you've got it sold. No, where does it go? It goes from the fitting room to the lasting department or the formation of the shoe proper. The last, as you know, is the shape of the finished product. And there, again, we have an assembly. The counters are put in the back part of the shoe between the lining and the upper to give them a firmness to help them retain their shape. In the forward part or the toe of the shoe, what we term a box toe or a stiffening

material is put into maintaining the shape of the shoe in a forward part. In between those two areas, there is nothing but a cushioning effect of this doubler and the lining and the leather. But that acts as a form throughout the whole shoe to keep it shape, is that the idea? That is true. Of course, the sole isn't put on yet now. We can see these things look like soft moccasins. Well, we've seen them now start to take shape in the form of a shoe. The next department we go into is the good -year department where the sole is attached. That is done in a series of operations similar to the ones we've been through. Also, we start to shape the shoe further in this department. The outline of the shoe or the sole of the shoe takes shape with the upper.

So you've got the sole on it now? Is that big stitching? Is that decorative only or does that have some functional purpose? No, the stitching is entirely functional. How long does it take when your operator is to stitch a pair of shoes? Well, the average operator stitches, depending again upon the amount of stitching, the length of the stitches, and the area to be covered. I would say average stitching does around three to three hundred and fifty per issues of day. Okay, moving down the line now. We've seen the formation of a shoe. We've seen the upper take shape, sewing, the sole put on. No, we appear to have pretty nearly a big regular perfectly rounded shoe. Yes, except that we put the finishing touches on now in what we term the finishing department. And this work is done mostly while it's done on a machine. There's a good deal of skill required

because there are no set gauges. It's simply a matter of the operator's judgment and their eyesight in the appearance of the shoe. Well, let's take a little closer look at the finishing room. Boy, now we know we're in a shoe factory, don't we, Mr. Van? We certainly do. There's Mr. Phil Van, who is an assistant superintendent in charge of the finishing room, which is where we are now amongst thousands of pairs of shoes that have been finished and are awaiting what? Well, they're waiting to be finished, actually finished. Well, these are completely finished. No, they're completely assembled and the forms have been pulled out of them and they're in this department here to be polished and cleaned up and finished in general and packed. Shoestreams put in a place. That's right. It will never be shoestreams yet. That's right. Well, that must be quite an operation. It is quite an operation in itself. End of the line. The end of the line and the most important end of the line, too.

Well, what do you do here? Well, we clean them up and inspect them and make sure that everything has been done just exactly so to them and the other departments prior to this one. And then we put them into the boxes, packed them neatly and shipped them out to the customers. But the most important thing is the general inspection that we give them. Yes, I was going to ask you, is that done by human means or mechanical means? For tax that might be sticking up on the inside of the shoe that have been left there accidentally, we have an X -ray machine for that. We put them in the X -ray machine and then immediately shows up any metallic piece of metal that might be in there. But how about just the general inspection? The general inspection is done by six or eight girls. In fact, this whole department has one large inspection department. Mr. Evans, how many persons would handle this shoe here in the finishing room? Well, between 15 and 16 are just about there. Each shoe, each shoe. Checking on every phase of it. Every phase of it and doing everything that's necessary to the shoe in this department. Well, how do you

polish if do you have, is that done by machine? No, all done manually. We apply the very best of polishes, the Kanaba wax polishes and finishes as we call them. And they're rubbed up by hand and finally they get around to the boxes. That's all there is to it. Just a lot of work, a lot of elbow grease, right? There's not too much mechanized in this particular room. Nothing at all. Why is that? Well, we find that the old fashion methods of spitting shine, same things we have in the Army and Navy and Marine Corps today is about the best way of finishing up high grade leather. The science of the shoe at Floreshine, Chicago industry. Proof of our prosperity is how for granted we take the shoe. The barefooted people of the world still number in the millions. And even in many less impoverished nations, the shoe is shepherded as much a

prize as an necessity. In Russia, it could cost a week's wages. In Asia, a scrap of leather is a precious commodity. It is true that we must look where we would walk in this world, but we walk with the best shot footsteps of all. This is Jack Angel with Dan Hosek, an engineer whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound.