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. 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. The Warren company's chief competitor was the
Day & Martin company formed in 1801. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
Surge in popularity shoe polish of the 1960s or 1970s: two different versions of Cherry Blossom and a version of
Wren's 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. Advertising became more prominent; many shoe polish brands used fictional figures or historical characters for their branding. The 1927 German documentary
Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis, has a scene focuses on shoe shining with a polish called Nigrin, which sports the face of a black person. Shoe polish remained an essential item by
World War II and was found just about everywhere
Allied troops ventured. American
war correspondent Walter Graeber wrote for
TIME magazine from the
Tobruk trenches in 1942 that "old tins of British-made Kiwi polish lay side by side with empty bottles of
Chianti." A story indicative of the rise in global significance of shoe polish is told by Jean (Gertrude) Williams, a New Zealander who lived in
Japan during the
Allied occupation. They explained that American soldiers were then finding the dullness of their boots and shoes to be a handicap when trying to win the affections of Japanese women. Prior to this, Cavalier Shoe Polish, founded by James Lobell, had operated in the US since 1913. The sales paradigm of Cavalier polish was to have footwear professionals sell Cavalier's high-end shoe polish to the shoe-buying public. A few years after World War II, Kiwi opened a manufacturing plant in
Philadelphia, making only black, brown, and neutral shoe polish in tins. Kiwi purchased Cavalier in 1961, and continued to manufacture products under the name until the year 2000. Kiwi was acquired by the American company
Sara Lee following its purchase of Reckitt and Colman in 1991 and Knomark with its brand
Esquire Shoe Polish in 1987. The
Competition Commission in the United Kingdom investigated the potential monopoly of Sara Lee in the shoe care industry. File:K&M Candles Brockholes UK, 1972 (RLH), KIWI Shoe Polish Canning Machine 01.jpg|KIWI Shoe Polish canning machine in 1972 – empty tins being loaded File:K&M Candles Brockholes UK, 1972 (RLH), KIWI Shoe Polish Canning Machine 02.jpg|Full tins from machine File:K&M Candles Brockholes UK, 1972 (RLH), KIWI Shoe Polish Production Line.jpg|Staff fitting lids by hand File:K&M Candles Brockholes UK, 1972 (RLH), KIWI Shoe Polish Staff Packing Tins.jpg|Staff packing cans into boxes File:K&M Candles Brockholes UK, 1972 (RLH), KIWI Shoe Polish Warehouse Storage.jpg|1972, KIWI Shoe Polish Warehouse Storage, at K&M Candle & shoe Polish Factory,
Brockholes,
West Yorkshire Modern day Shoe polish products are low-value items that are infrequently purchased, as a single can might last several months for even the most frequent user. Consumer demand is
inelastic and largely insensitive to price change, while sales volumes are generally low. In the shoe polish market as a whole, some 26% of turnover is accounted for by pastes, 24% by creams, 23% by aerosols, and 13% by liquids. There are numerous branded products available, as well as generic
store brands. There are two chief areas of shoe polish sales: to the public, and to specialists and trade, such as shoe repairers, and
cobblers. The sales percentages between the two outlets are roughly comparable. The best-selling, low-cost brands are produced by these companies: Kiwi, Griffin, Tana, and Johnson, and Reckitt & Colman. Approximately 60 million units are sold annually. ==Usage==