Thursday, January 5, 2017

At Leading Shoe Rebuilders Everywhere

This ad for Biltrite shoe soles - "BEST by any test!" - has seen better days. It dates to 1947, which we know because it is located in a St. Louis Public Service bus that was retired that year and benignly neglected until acquired by IRM in 2015. I'm actually not sure exactly what it says, other than the dark-colored lettering and "America's Standard of Quality" across the bottom. "BILTRITE will not something / something heels and soles" - any ideas? Just make sure you see a leading shoe rebuilder and not one of those knock-off shoe rebuilders.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Skid and Rubber are the words you could not make out. Maybe this can be put into the scanner at the Pullman Library and then reworked by someone in a photo editor before reproducing on cardstock?

David Wilkins said...

St. Louis was a shoemaking center of America. Before prohibition the city was know for "Blues, Booze, and Shoes."

Chris said...

Some of the unfortunate breweries even became shoe factories.

Jim Stafa said...

Wonder if you can send them brake shoes...

A Stafa,
Ohio