RUBBER IN FOOTWEAR

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 264, 6 August 1942, Page 6

RUBBER IN FOOTWEAR

No Real Substitute Available INFLUENCE ON SHOE TYPES When the scarcity of rubber is mentioned thoughts go first to motorvehicle tyres, but the modern civilized man not only rides oil rubber but also Walks ou rubber, even when he is wearing leather boots, and though there is not a shortage of footwear in New Zealand, if rubber becomes unavailable to civilians at some future date the types of shoes they will wear will change. Rubber has become, of great importance in the manufacture of footwear, both as a sole and heel material and as an adhesive. Substitutes for rubber as it Is used in boots and shoes are unknown in the trade.' Before crepe rubber sports shoes were introduced 20 years ago there were vulcanized - rubber sandshoes. Before the rubber shoes there were chrome leather shoes'and before them rope- soles. Rope soles are better than rubber soles .in some circumstances, such as on the hot decks of a ship in the tropics, for they do not carry heat to the feet readily as does rubber, but they would not stand the heavy abrasion of sports wear. Chrome leather wears better than rubber and is -pliable, but is slippery in the wet, and chrome being an important material for the munitions of war, it is not available for the tanning of extra' quantities of leather. Attemps have been made overseas to find a substitute for rubber soles, and some materials have been devised, but they all contain some proportion of rubber. Small quantities of rubber go into even leather boots, for rubber solutions have qualities as adhesives that make them almost indespensible in the manufacture of boots by machinery. It is only when there’ is a threat that a material like rubber will be unprocurable that the übiquity of it is realized. Fortunately New Zealand is not threatened with a shortage of leather, as are some other countries. So serious is the leather shortage overseas that wood has been taken up seriously as a sole material for women’s fashion shqes and women’s sandals with wooden soles, hinged under the ball of each foot with a leather hinge, have been, advertised. The plainest disadvantage of these would be that dirt could get into the hinge and stop it closing till it was cleaned.