 |
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
The Belleville Shoe
Lissa Farquhar In 1904 a small group of Belleville businessmen pooled their resources to create the Belleville Shoe Manufacturing Company. Little did they imagine that in the next century their product would carry the mark of "Belleville" around the world. In 1904 a global marketplace was a dream of the distant future, and logging onto commercial Web sites was not even imagined, but the drive and determination that would thrust the world in these directions was part of American business. Early in the twentieth century, Belleville was a city whose leaders boasted of its progressive attitude toward the formation of new businesses. City tax deferrals for new companies were readily available, and coal that was used to fuel the industrial machines was mined only a few miles south of town. An entrepreneurial attitude prevailed, and it was out of this climate that the Belleville Shoe Manufacturing Company emerged. By the turn of the twentieth century large numbers of first- and second-generation German families populated the city. The original group of Belleville Shoe investors was German: Adolph Knobeloch, H.E. Leunig, Joseph Reis, James Rentchler, and William Weidmann. Reis was named president, but it was Weidmann, the company's secretary-treasurer, who had introduced the shoe-factory idea. The company began operations in the former Rentchler machine shops at East B and Delmar streets. Born in Belleville, William Weidmann was one of eight children of a German immigrant couple. His parents arrived in the area in the second half of the nineteenth century. By the time he was gathering investors for his shoemaking scheme, he and his wife Caroline (Leunig) had two sons, William and Walter. In the same year that Belleville Shoe was incorporated, Walter graduated from the St. Louis Manual Training School. Within a short time he joined the company as the operational manager. He piloted Belleville Shoe successfully in and out of the Great Depression, World War II, and into the prosperity of the 1950s. Through the 1960s, 1970s, and into the mid-1980s, Walter's son, Homer Weidmann led the company. Today, William Weidmann's great-grandson, Eric R. Weidmann is the president. The history of Belleville Shoe echoes several themes that were typical of small industry in the United States during the twentieth century. With an initial investment of $15,000 and twenty-five workers in 1904, the company quickly outgrew its original site. When a fire destroyed the Jordan Shoe Company in 1909, Belleville Shoe purchased the land and a new factory was built at the corner of Main and Walnut streets. Four years later the complex expanded again when more land and an addition was built on Walnut directly behind the newly erected factory. The work force within the Military contracts for Belleville Shoe products helped the company weather some tough financial climates. Today the company manufactures shoes almost exclusively for the military. (Photo courtesy Lissa Farquhar)
facility had grown to two hundred people who were able to produce thousands of pairs of shoes a day. By July 1913 the labor movement that was sweeping the country found its way to Belleville Shoe and the workers took steps to form their first union. Two unions competed for the chance to claim two hundred new members, and fights broke out. By November the disputes were spilling out into the community, and on Jackson and B streets a riot resulted, where one man was shot and three were stabbed. Even though none of the men were shoe factory employees, news articles claimed that the fight was a continuation of labor trouble that had "plagued Belleville Shoe for several months." During this time, Walter Weidmann sought the advice of American labor leader Samuel Gompers, and the disputes were finally settled. Like many American companies, Belleville Shoe prospered with the demand for goods that World War I brought. However, not all of the effects of the war were positive. The stress of a heavy work load caused some to be more susceptible to disease. In 1918 the building was evacuated and fumigated because of a worker who was stricken with smallpox in the plant. With the end of World War I, the factory returned to normal production of shoes for "men, boys and little gents," offering more than twenty-five styles. During the 1920s the company continued with a forward-thinking attitude and was the first in the city to offer worker incentives. Daily attendance was rewarded with a percentage bonus. Life insurance policies were also offered to employees. On the brink of the Great Depression, Belleville Shoe celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary. By that time the company employed three hundred people and manufactured about two thousand pairs of shoes daily. Like most American companies, the shoe factory struggled to hang on during the Depression, and it was the contract to produce military footwear for soldiers during World War II that returned the plant to heavy production levels. By the end of the war, Belleville Shoe had earned the coveted Army/Navy "E" award for on-time delivery throughout the conflict. This was the remarkable beginning of a relationship, permitting the company's claim to be "the country's oldest and largest supplier of military footwear" From 1940 to the present, Belleville Shoe Manufacturing has provided a continual flow of military boots to various divisions of the nation's armed forces. During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the company saw a decline in their dress shoe line and redirected their efforts toward sports shoes. Track, baseball, and football shoes that were made in Belleville were sold to the Rawlings Sporting Goods Company of St. Louis and marketed with the "Belleville" trademark. At one time the company boasted that most of the baseball shoes worn in the major leagues, as well as a large percentage of shoes worn by professional football players and Olympic track stars were made in Belleville. By the mid-1980s, most shoes were imported, and the Belleville Shoe product became almost exclusively military. The old timbered floors of the early-twentieth century factory had been underpinned to support specialized machinery. Rubber milling facilities, a vulcanizing process, and a need for an extensive automated conveyor system forced the consideration of a new plant. In 1986 a new 113,000 square-foot facility in Belleville's Belle Valley Industrial Park was completed. This expanded the capability of the shoe company to produce superior products using the "modular manufacturing system." The original factory was donated by the Weidmann family to the Women's Crisis Center of Metro East, and today houses women and children in the midst of severe family turmoil. During Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s, Belleville Shoe was again called upon to dramatically increase the military's supply of footwear. The design and material of the traditional black all-leather combat boot was changed to suit the conditions in the Persian Gulf. A desert-colored, suede and nylon boot with insulation to protect against the desert heat was created and shipped in record time. Defense officials were amazed by the quantity, quality, and on-time delivery of the new boot. Today Belleville Shoe and its 350 employees have joined the electronic market place with a commercial Web site: www.bellevilleshoe.com. With a change of policy, the military has begun to encourage its suppliers to use their brand names. The "Belleville" logo is now stamped on approximately three thousand pairs a day as the company contributes to a global American economy.—[From Nanon A. Anderson, The Belleville Shoe Manufacturing Company; Belleville Daily Advocate, Nov. 10, 1904, June 1, 1909, Apr. 25, Nov. 15, 1913; Mar. 28, 1918, Mar. 20, 1920, Dec. 20, 1929; The Belleville News Democrat, Aug. 11, 1961, Nov. 8, 1999; St. Louis Post Dispatch, Feb. 13, 1991.]
|
|
|
