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Lasting impressions: shoemaking is a highly skilled job of engineering and adhesives continue to play a vital part in the development of footwear. (Shoemaking).

Article Excerpt
For such a commonplace item of apparel, footwear is an extremely complex object to build, having to meet a tight specification in its appearance and wear properties.

It has to fit an individual foot, be easy to put on and take off, be light, flexible and comfortable in wear, protect the foot against heat and moisture while allowing perspiration from the foot to escape. It must also be non-slip on all common walking surfaces and offer a long service life.

Perhaps for many, most important of all, it has to be fashionable. This means that new footwear collections are introduced at least twice a year--spring/summer and autumn/winter, although the trend today is towards a constantly evolving fashion theme throughout the year, featuring new styles, new materials, new colours, new textures, new heel heights and new toe shapes.

Shoemaking is a series of operations, both mechanical and manual, which converts flat pieces of material into a three dimensional object--a shoe, sandal or boot. Traditional shoemaking, as employed by Loake Shoemakers, for example, in making a Goodyear welted pair of shoes, can involve some 170 skilled craftsmen, up to 75 shoe parts and 200 different operations.

Modern shoemaking is appreciably simpler and essentially consists of the assembly of bought-out precision parts such as uppers, sole units, toe puffs, counters, insoles and stiffeners.

FORMERS AND UPPERS

There are a number of different footwear constructions but virtually all employ a last--a plastic or wooden former--on which the upper is shaped and constructed using an insole as its base. In the past, shoe parts were joined together using tacks, screws and stitching but today their combined role has been largely taken over by adhesives or self-adhesion,...