Shoe polish, also known as boot polish and shoeshine, is a waxy paste, cream, or liquid that is used to polish, shine, and waterproof leather shoes or boots to extend the footwear's lifespan and restore its appearance. Shoe polishes are distinguished by their textures, which range from liquids to hard waxes. Solvent, waxes, and colorants comprise most shoe polishes. Shoe polishes that would be recognizable today have been around since the Middle Ages. Originally made with dubbin, they were only used to soften leather and weather proof shoes, they did not shine shoes. However, the popularity of shoe shining that arose during the early 1900s led to many shoe polish formulas being incorporated with a shining agent.
Types Shoe polish can be classified into three types: wax, cream-emulsion, and liquid. Each differs in detailed composition, but all consist of a mixture of waxes, solvents and often include colorants or dyes.
Wax-based shoe polish
Waxes, organic solvents, and colorant (either soluble dyes or pigment) compose this type of polish. Waxes are 20–40% of the material. Natural waxes used for the polish include carnauba and as well as synthetic waxes. The composition determines the hardness and polishing properties after solvent has evaporated. Solvents are selected to match the waxes. About 70% of shoe polish is solvent. A variety of solvents are used, including naphtha. Turpentine, although more expensive, is favored for its "shoe polish odor". Dyes make up the final 2–3% of the polish. A traditional dye is nigrosine, but other dyes (including azo dyes) and pigments are used for oxblood, cordovan, and brown polishes.
Owing to its high content of volatile solvents, wax-based shoe polish hardens after application, while retaining its gloss.Kiwi brands – shoe polish: Material safety data sheet. Health and Environment Resource Center. Accessed November 27, 2007. Poorly blended polishes are known to suffer from blooming, evidenced by the appearance of a white coating of stearin on the polish surface.
Cream-emulsion shoe polish
These polishes may have a gelatinous consistency. They are composed of the usual three components: waxes, liquid vehicle, and dyes. Unlike wax-based shoe polishes, cream-emulsions contain water and/or oil plus a solvent (either naphtha, turpentine or Stoddard Solution), so the liquid content is high. Emulsifiers and surfactants are required. These include ammonia, morpholine, and various ethoxylated surfactants such as polysorbate 80. The waxes are often some mixture of carnauba wax, beeswax, montan wax and its oxidized derivatives, and paraffin waxes.
Liquid shoe polish Liquid shoe polish is sold in a squeezable plastic bottle, with a small sponge applicator at the end. To decrease its viscosity, bottled polish usually has a very low wax content. Liquid shoe polish is a complex mixture. Polyethylene wax emulsion is a major component. Various polymers, typically acrylates, are the next major component, conferring gloss and holding the dyes in suspension. Resins and casein are selected to ensure adhesion to the leather. Fatty phosphate esters, emulsifiers, and glycols are also used. Pigments include titanium dioxide for whites and iron oxides for browns. Although liquid polish can put a fast shine on shoes, many experts warn against its long-term use because it can cause the leather to dry out and crack.
Manufacture
The process for producing shoe polish is very straightforward and the required equipment is relatively easy to acquire. The cost of establishing shoe polish manufacturing facilities has been estimated at $600,000 (as of 2005).
Shoe polish is manufactured in large, thermo-stated, stirred reactors. Steps are taken to ensure that volatile solvents do not evaporate. Typically, low-melting paraffin wax is melted, followed by the higher melting waxes, and finally the colorant-stearate mixture. The molten mass is added to warm solvent before being dispensed. Wax-based shoe polish is traditionally packaged in flat, round, 60-gram (2-ounce) tins, usually with an easy-open facility. The traditional flat, round tins have since become synonymous with shoe polishes. When dried due to solvent loss or other reasons, the hardened wax pulls away from the walls of the container, giving what is known as a "rattler".
History
Before the twentieth century
Treating footwear to soften, waterproof, protect, and extend its lifespan is an ancient tradition as textile and clothmaking. Ancient peoples would use natural waxes, animal fats, and plant-based oils based on their availability to achieve their desired effects. However, these treatments were not generally meant to shine the shoe.
In the Middle Ages, dubbin, a product of wax, was often used to soften and waterproof leather; but it did not impart shine. It was made from natural wax, oil, soda ash, and tallow. As leather with a high natural veneer became popular in the 18th century, a high glossy finish became important, particularly on shoes and boots. In most cases, homemade polishes were used to provide this finish, often with lanolin or beeswax as a base.
In the late 18th and early 19th century, many forms of shoe polish became available, yet were rarely referred to as shoe polish or boot polish. Instead, they were often called blacking, especially when mixed with lampblack, or still were referred to as dubbin. Tallow, an animal by-product, was used to manufacture a simple form of shoe polish at this time. In Chicago, where 82% of the processed meat consumed in the United States was processed, stockyards became a major shoe polish producing area.History files, The Stockyards: Slaughterhouse to the world, Meatpacking technology. Chicago Historical Society. Accessed November 27, 2007.
Thomas and Jonathan Warren started making blacking around 1795–98 in London, initially in partnership with, and then competing against other companies. Jonathan Warren's Blacking company is noted as the first employer of Charles Dickens, aged 12 in 1823.Charles Dickens and the Blacking Factory by Michael Allen. 2011 The Warren company's chief competitor was the Day & Martin company formed in 1801."Day & Martin", Grace's Guide]
Details of the operation of Day & Martin in 1842 reveal that the blacking they produced was in two forms, bottled liquid, and a thick paste which was available in either small wide-mouthed stone tubs, slabs wrapped in oiled paper, or in "circular tin-boxes, about three inches in diameter, and half or three-quarters of an inch thick.". Tinned blacking paste was at this time exclusively for army use: "[…] a bottle of liquid blacking would be rather a burden […] yet, as the soldier's boots or shoes must to some extent emulate the brightness and glitter of the boots of those who pay for battles instead of fighting them, a portable blacking apparatus is provided.".
In 1832, James S. Mason of Philadelphia began the commercial production of shoe blacking and inks. In 1851, James S. Mason & Co. constructed a building where 200 employees would produce 10 million boxes to hold blacking product tins annually. The tins would eventually be labeled, Mason Shoe Polish. This business shuttered in 1919 and the building was razed in 1973.Philadelphia and Its Manufacturers: A Hand-book of the Great Manufactories and Representative Mercantile House of Philadelphia 1867, Edwin Troxwell Freedley, Edward Young & Co, Philadelphia, 1867Susina Plantation: the Masons. Accessed June 11, 2015
In 1851, the Irish brand Punch was introduced as another leather preserving product.
In 1889, William Edward Wren, started making shoe polishes and dubbin in England under the brand name Wren's. The company was awarded the First in the Field – First Award at the 1892 Leather Trades Exhibition in Northampton. A 1947 advertisement for Wren's would claim that William Wren originated the first wax polish in 1889. The advertisement was endorsed with the Royal Warrant, giving the claim creditability.
In 1890, the Kroner Brothers established EOS, a shoe polish factory in Berlin that serviced the Prussian military. It was closed in 1934 when the Nazis forbade Jews to operate a business.Adressbücher, Center for Berlin Studies, Berlin, 1890: Gebrüder Kroner, Chemische Fbrk., Zintern, Lade, chem. Präper. Fette, S. Annenstr. 14 Pt. Inh. Hugo u. Siegfried Kroner (Translation: Kroner Brothers, Chemical Factory, Polish, …chemical preparations, fat, South Annenstraße 14, parterre, owners Hugo and Siegfried Kroner. Addresses listed in the phone books include: 1890-92 EOS:Annenstraße 14, 1893- EOS:Hagelberger Straße 6 Parterre (ground floor),1902-09EOS: Alexandrinenstraße 119, 120, 1911-34 EOS: Warschauer Straße 31-36
Modern polish
The first shoe polishes aimed primarily at inducing shine were the British and British Commonwealth brands like Cherry Blossom, Kiwi, and Wren's.
While the oldest brand is believed to be Wren's, Kiwi is arguably the best known. Scottish expatriates William Ramsay and Hamilton McKellan began making "boot polish" in a small factory in 1904 in Melbourne, Australia.William Ramsay. White Hat Tours (February 22, 2004). Internet archive version. Accessed November 11, 2007. Their formula was a major improvement on previous brands as it preserved shoe leather, shined, and restored colour. Ramsay named the shoe polish after the kiwi, the national bird of New Zealand; Ramsay's wife, Annie Elizabeth Meek Ramsay, was a native of Oamaru, New Zealand.Going High to Hauroki. Kiwiphile, Volume XIII, No. 1, September 2000. Accessed November 27, 2007. It has been suggested that, at a time when several symbols were weakly associated with New Zealand, the eventual spread of Kiwi shoe polish around the world enhanced the kiwi's popular appeal and promoted it at the expense of the others.Imagination: 100 years of bright ideas in Australia (PDF). Australian Government, chapter 3 (iv) 2004-01-22, p. 7. Accessed November 28, 2007. Kiwi Dark Tan's release in 1908 incorporated agents that also added suppleness and water resistance. As black and a range of colors came available, exports to Britain, continental Europe, and New Zealand began. The polish is now made in Asia. The Sara Lee Corporation took ownership of the brand in 1984 until it was sold to SC Johnson, in 2011.
A Kiwi brand rival in the early years was Cobra Boot Polish, based in Sydney, Australia. Cobra was noted for a series of cartoon advertisements starting in 1909 in The Sydney Bulletin. They featured a character named "Chunder Loo of Akim Foo." It is believed the Australian slang word for vomiting, "chunder," could have originated through the rhyming slang of "Chunder Loo" and "spew," another slang word for vomit.Dodd, Robert. Sez you. Take Our Word For It, Issue 173, p. 4. Accessed November 27, 2007.
Surge in popularity
Shoe manufacturing improvements in the mid-19th century as part of the Industrial Revolution allowed for factories to produce large numbers of shoes made of leather, and later synthetic materials. This increase in leather shoe production continued well into the 20th century and led to a surge in the number of retail shoe stores in the industrialized world, and a subsequent call for shoe polish by footwear consumers. The outbreak of World War I in 1914, with its high demand for large numbers of polished military boots, surged market demand for a product that would allow boots to be polished quickly and easily. Polish also started to be used on leather belts, holsters, and horse tack, further increasing the demand. Used by Australian troops during WWI, Kiwi shoe polish spread throughout the British Commonwealth countries and the United States. Its spread invited rival brands such as Shinola and Cavalier (United States), Cherry Blossom (United Kingdom), Parwa (India), Jean Bart (France), and others.