Thursday, September 3, 2015

Oh, patents! Perugia’s improved fasteners

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

To fasten shoes with laces, bows or cords of any sort, the state of the art in 1930 was small metal eyelets or hooks, through which the laces, bows or cords were threaded or hooked. This caused the laces to wear out quite fast and consisted in an additional manufactured part.  


Perugia offered to improve the state of the art with tabs cut out of the shoe vamp that were then folded back and sewn in place. This was deemed far more aesthetic, and it caused less wear and was easier to produce. The tabs could be folded back on top of the shoe or tucked in on the inside the shoe.

To the right, a Figure drawing extracted from FR680710, that shows the tabs folded back and sewn in place. This was a French improvement patent, titled “Perfectionennements à la fabrication des chaussures”, awarded to Perugia on Jan 3, 1930.   

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