Trip to Florida Shoes

Today we visited the Florida Shoe Factory in Norwich which is a producer of Van Dal shoes. For me it was a very helpful trip because it enabled me to see first hand how shoes were made and the processes that went into making them.

Below there is a list of many pictures that I took whilst at florida shoes.

The Florida shoes office

Some fabrics used for making the shoes

Cutting table in action

You can see the templates being taken out

Leather

Reptile skin (fake)

These are the processes that go into making a shoe...

1. They have magazines showing the up and coming trends so they know what types of shoe will be popular. They use a colour pallet called pan tone that is known globally so it is easy for them to communicate with factories in China etc.

2. They create theme boards to gather ideas and use them as a visual reference for the shoe

3. They create the initial sketch of the shoe

4. Plastic vacs are used to show a shoe shape. It is then drawn on to use as a template 

5. They use computer aided design (CAD) to create the shoe pattern

6. The CAD picture is then printed onto paper using a cutting table, the cutting table uses a lazer to cut out the correct design. It has one setting for cutting paper, one for plastic and a pen that writes detail on the shoe so assembling the shoe is easier

7. Designs are then cut out by the clicker including the inner lining

8. They stitch some bits of the shoe together on sewing machines - predominantly a woman's job

9. Back of the heel is formed using heat to set

10. Glue sticks on the shoe sole

11. Heel of the shoe is punched on with nails

12.Stray fibres are burnt off the shoe

13. A bottom ruffer is used to give the shoe more grip

14. Boxes that the shoes are packed in are flat packed from China and assembled in Norwich by prisoners at the Norwich prison as a sign of labour

15. They use waterproofing technology (they are currently the only place in the UK that uses this technology) that is also used by the army and RAF to make army clothes water resistant to waterproof their shoes. This process adds £5 to the retail price.

Additional info

They make 1400 pairs of shoes a week.

It is the second largest shoe factory in the UK.

They make shoes and handbags.

90% of the shoes they sell are imported from China and India.

The common size that they base the templates on is 4 1/2