Whats in Your Shoe

Materials Used in Making Shoes

By: Sofia Koloredu

If you perhaps have ever had a chance to watch any older suspense thriller movies then you may have noticed that they all seem to all have one thing in common. That is that it seems like whenever a woman who was in distress goes to make a “run for it”, one of the heels’ on her high heeled shoes always seems to break.

You don't see that in newer suspense films though, and there's a reason why. That is that today's high heeled shoes are made with stronger materials.

It's not just the materials that they're made from either, but also the materials that binds them together. And who hasn't heard of superglue, that wondrous adhesive that sticks to almost anything, and only requires one small drop to hold hundreds of pounds?

This new glue was introduced about two decades back and is just one shining example of how advanced newer glues have become. Now your shoes aren't made with superglue but similar adhesive products are used.

Believe it or not it is the Nazis who can claim a good chunk of it credit for the development of some of the latest more improved materials used in shoe making. What I'm referring to specifically is modern synthetic rubber. You see, it was German chemists who perfected the methods for making rubber out of petroleum after their supply lines for natural latex were cut off during World War II.

There is another new development in shoe making, a material that has come about in recent years. Something that's made today's footwear far more comfortable on your feet is “memory foam”. Newer more advanced types of foam that function much better to retain their original shape. That is that they don't “squish flat” nearly as quickly as earlier foam products that were used for padding.

Memory foam was in fact developed by NASA for padding the seats of spacecraft.

Now with so much being done on the high-tech front in terms of developing new shoe making materials, you may find it odd that the material that continues to garner the most news coverage and publicity has been used for thousands of years. It's 100% natural and in fact is one of the main crops on George Washington's farm in Virginia.

A fibre that's strong enough for shoes yet delicate enough to make clothing with.

What I'm referring to is hemp fibre. Now the problem that most people have today is that they assume hemp and marijuana are the same plant. Yes they are close relatives but there is one huge major difference.

That is that marijuana produces THCs which are the substances that cause the intoxicating effects when it's smoked. Hemp on the other hand, it's the tall, gangly, “fibrous” cousin, does not.

The irony here though, is that because the plant is useful in so many areas of agriculture and manufacturing, it has gained its fair share of enemies. Politically connected timber producers, for instance, don't want to see hemp farming replace logging as a source for paper and building materials.

Also southern cotton producers (King Cotton) have traditionally viewed the prospect of hemp farming as a threat to their more costly and less versatile fibre.

Author Resource:-> Shoe Zone have a large chain of Shoe Shops across the UK which stock the latest fashions and trends in the footwear world, they offer high quality products and unrivalled value.

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