A Modern Shoe Factory.
Shoe factories are usually about two hundred feet long, while many are nearly four hundred feet. A few exceed four hundred feet, running as long as eight hundred feet. Some are built in the shape of hollow squares, while others have wings added, which give almost as much floor space as the original building.
The average factory has usually four floors. The first floor, or basement, is occupied by the sole leather department. The next floor above includes the treeing, finishing, packing, and shipping departments, and also the office. The third floor is devoted entirely to the making or bottoming department. The top floor is divided so that the cutting and stitching departments have each half a floor.
There are several exceedingly large factories in this country that find it advantageous to divide the factory into more departments, as, for example, the cutting room is divided so that the linings and trimmings are cut in a separate department. The skiving may also be done in a separate room. The making room will be divided so that the lasting is set off as a separate department on account of the many workmen and machines employed. In the same way there will be a division of work so that the packing and shipping will be set apart from the treeing. Then, again, in the sole leather room, the making of heels as well as the fitting of the bottom stock may become independent departments.
The system of making women’s shoes is practically the same as that of men’s except that in a great many factories the method of preparing the bottom stock is somewhat different. Most manufacturers of women’s shoes do not cut sole leather, but buy outsoles, insoles, counters, and heels, all cut or prepared. These soles are in blocked form and large enough so that they can be cut or rounded by the manufacturers to fit their lasts. The counters, when bought, are all ready to put in the uppers, while the heels are ready to put on the shoes. Whenever a manufacturer of women’s shoes cuts his sole leather, he has the same system as that in the men’s factories.
In women’s factories where sole leather is not cut, they do not have a complete sole leather department. Instead, they have what is called a stock-fitting department. There are independent cut sole houses, etc., in the trade, which supply the soles to manufacturers. The same system of buying supplies also applies to many other parts of the shoe, as in the top lift, half sole, welt, rand, etc. In the upper leather department, manufacturers of both men’s and women’s shoes often buy trimmings and other parts of the upper all prepared.
A large proportion of the men’s shoe manufacturers are now buying heels all built, while fully nine tenths buy counters all molded. The soles and other parts that are needed for a shoe are put up in different qualities and grades, and a manufacturer can buy any grade of sole he wants, so that it is considered an advantage to buy some parts, instead of cutting them. In a side of sole leather there are twenty-five or more different qualities and grades of soles, and very few manufacturers, especially in the women’s trade, can use all of these. The greater variety of shoes a manufacturer turns out, the more advantageous it is for him to cut his own sole leather, and prepare all parts in his own factory.
In this country the number of factories in the shoe trade appears to be growing less and the average factory larger each year. It is estimated that there are at present something like fifteen hundred factories in all. These range from the smallest product up to the largest. The average factory may be said to produce about twelve hundred pairs of shoes per day. Many turn out five thousand pairs daily, while a few manufacturers turn out ten thousand or more pairs. Several manufacturers and firms have half a dozen or more factories and have a total output of between twenty thousand and thirty thousand pairs of shoes a day. There is no such thing as a trust or monopoly of any kind in this trade, and there never has been up to the present time.