Shoe Goo is a

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

adhesive Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advant ...

and

sealant Sealant is a substance used to block the passage of fluids through openings in materials, a type of mechanical seal. In building construction ''sealant'' is sometimes synonymous with ''caulking'' and also serve the purposes of blocking dust, s ...

intended for repairs of

footwear Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serves the purpose of protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from ground textures and temperature. Footwear in the manner of shoes therefore primarily serves th ...

. It is a registered

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

of Eclectic Products, based in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

. Shoe Goo is a specialized type of

rubber cement Rubber cement (cow gum in British English) is an adhesive made from elastic polymers (typically latex) mixed in a solvent such as acetone, hexane, heptane or toluene to keep it fluid enough to be used. This makes it part of the class of drying ad ...

that contains a cleaning/degreasing solvent and an abrasion-resistant synthetic rubber (see , below).

Origins

Shoe Goo was created in part in 1972 by Lyman Van Vliet, a 45-year-old senior executive at

Hughes Aircraft Co. The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace company, aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of Hughes Tool Company. The company was known for producing ...

"A Shoe-repair Product For People On The Run,"
''Inc.'' magazine, September 1, 1982. As a frequent

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player, Van Vliet was dissatisfied with the durability of the soles of his

tennis shoes Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used fo ...

and sought a method to extend their life by repairing them. Although he already held several

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s related to the aerospace industry, he had no extensive background in

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

. Nevertheless, he worked to create an adhesive with a pliable surface coating for shoe soles, whipping up his experimental blends in a spaghetti pot. The result of his efforts was a

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

eventually marketed as "Shoe Goo". In 1972, to market his creation, Van Vliet started a business called Eclectic Products, with its manufacturing facilities in his home garage in

Palos Verdes, California The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the Sou ...

. He placed small ads in tennis magazines, and his wife Sandy approached tennis pro shops. Despite their efforts, they obtained only 22 retail orders during their first year.Sally Koris
"Shoe Goo Guru Lyman Van Vliet Cures Tattered Tennis Toes with Sheer Stick-to-Itiveness,"
''People'' magazine, vol. 18, no. 8 (August 9, 1982). In 1974, Sandy convinced the retail giant

K-Mart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inco ...

to carry Shoe Goo. Although originally developed for tennis shoes, Shoe Goo quickly gained a foothold in the booming

jogging Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase physical fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running but more than walking, or to maintain a steady speed for longer periods ...

market of the 1970s and 1980s.Sally Koris
"Shoe Goo Guru Lyman Van Vliet Cures Tattered Tennis Toes with Sheer Stick-to-Itiveness,"
''People'' magazine, vol. 18, no. 8 (August 9, 1982). By the end of its first decade, the company employed 15 people and had annual sales of approximately $2 million. Lyman Van Vliet quit his job at Hughes Aircraft to work full-time on his enterprise. In 1976 Eclectic Products established a manufacturing facility in nearby San Pedro. In 1988, Eclectic Products was sold to the Willamette Valley Company, which moved Shoe Goo's operations to

Uses

Although Shoe Goo can be used on rubber, wood, glass, concrete and metal, it is most commonly used as a pliable adhesive for separated shoe components, as a filler on worn shoe soles, and as a sealer to repair waterproof fabrics and footwear. Skateboarders use Shoe Goo on their skate shoes to protect them from, and repair damage done by, the skateboard's sandpaper-like "

grip tape A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboarde ...

". Cyclists use it to repair punctures by bonding vulcanised rubber patches to the punctured rubber inner tube. It is used by hobbyists in lieu of

as an assembly adhesive for radio controlled models of cars and aircraft, repair of Lexan bodies, and as a waterproofing agent for model boats. It is also used to protect the toes of

cricket bat A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batters in the sport of cricket to hit the ball, typically consisting of a cane handle attached to a flat-fronted willow-wood blade. It may also be used by a batter who is making ground ...

Composition

Shoe Goo is composed of:{{Cite web, url = http://eclecticproducts.com/downloads/sds-shoegoo-clear-english.pdf, title = Safety data sheet: Shoe Goo clear, date = 29 September 2015, accessdate = 31 October 2015, website = , publisher = Eclectic Products, last = , first = *

Styrene-butadiene Styrene-butadiene or styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) describe families of synthetic rubbers derived from styrene and butadiene (the version developed by Goodyear is called Neolite). These materials have good abrasion resistance and good aging st ...

, a synthetic rubber with good abrasion resistance *

Toluene Toluene (), also known as toluol (), is a substituted aromatic hydrocarbon. It is a colorless, water-insoluble liquid with the smell associated with paint thinners. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, consisting of a methyl group (CH3) at ...

tetrachloroethylene Tetrachloroethylene, also known under the systematic name tetrachloroethene, or perchloroethylene, and many other names (and abbreviations such as "perc" or "PERC", and "PCE"), is a chlorocarbon with the formula Cl2C=CCl2 . It is a colorless liq ...

solvent *

Solvent naphtha White spirit (AU, UK & Ireland)Primarily in the United Kingdom and Australia. In New Zealand "white spirit" can also refer to Coleman fuel (white gas). or mineral spirits (US, Canada), also known as mineral turpentine (AU/NZ), turpentine substitu ...

, a cleaning/degreasing solvent

Footnotes

External links

* Eclectic Products
Original Shoe Goo home page
eclecticproducts.com/ Retrieved October 17, 2010. * International Technical Trading Inc, Japanese homepage: http://www.shoegoo.co.jp English homepage: http://www.shoegoo.asia Chemical companies established in 1972 Adhesives Skateboarding equipment Sports technology Companies based in Eugene, Oregon 1972 establishments in California Products introduced in 1972

Origins

Uses

Composition

Footnotes

Further reading

External links