Funny, I just toured a New Balance factory today with a bunch of other engineers and was wondering why I kept hearing questions about adhesives and such. Now I know why.
Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL, HI)
Yes, most shoes now depend a lot on adhesives, and not so much on stitching. I've had some fall apart (including one pair of New Balance shoes), but mine were old and had never faced the test which Williamson gave his Nikes.
I know a guy who hit a deer at speed while riding his motorcycle. Cut the deer in half but he went over the bars, flipped in the air and landed on his feet. Ripped both soles right off his boots, lost a lot of skin. Those were glued on. Not a good failure mode for safety equipment.
----------------------------------------
The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
TME, my NB's were made in Maine and I'm guessing maybe even at the factory you toured... did they happen to mention what kind of safety factor my dad shoes have?
Bones: Might be but there's actually 3 NB factories in Maine; I toured the Skowhegan one. Maine used to be a big producer of shoes but with the overseas pressure New Balance is the only one left. They kept FOS and that kind of info design info close to the chest but I gathered they were generally no worse or no better than the competition in regard to adhesive strength. They had decent QA/QC from what I saw but, as you would expect, their main focus was number of pairs of shoes produced per unit time (1 pair in 44 seconds was their target if I recall).
Ian Riley, PE, SE
Professional Engineer (ME, NH, VT, CT, MA, FL) Structural Engineer (IL, HI)
Yea, cool I think the saleswoman mentioned the Skowhegan plant. I recently moved back to Maine after drifting around since college and I've been trying to buy locally sourced stuff as much as possible. Pretty cool that they still make shoes here.
Sure thing. If you go to any of the SEAM events, you'll probably see me there. Your name sounds really familiar and I think we actually had some classes together, so we'd probably recognize each other.
I bought a pair of Wolverine hiking boots quite a few years ago. The soles came off on the first hike. The soles repaired by the store came off on my second hike. I have not bought Wolverines since.
Attaching soles on to athletic shoes has to be a challenging application.
Meh, if glue is good enough for vehicle components getting into collisions at 70+ mph then its good enough for shoes. My feet simply dont move that fast anymore, even during marathon season.
"if glue is good enough for vehicle components getting into collisions at 70+ mph then its good enough for shoes."
Is this really a good comparison of adhesive performance between stiff metal components and flexible components (leather, fabric, and elastomers)? Fortunately my shoes have failed more often than my vehicles!
Durable goods have gone the way of disposable goods. Quality has gone the way of flashy marketing and social pressure. Those ships have long since sailed. Tom Waits explains it pretty well here:
I have no problems with my current pair of hiking boots. I am leery of anything that goes for less than $200CDN. My boots are sturdy, comfortable, and waterproof. They make great winter boots.
The waterproofing works very well when the water is less than 8"[ ]deep, which is great. They are waterproof when the water is more than 8"[ ]deep, which is not so great.
![[wink]](/data/assets/smilies/wink.gif "[wink] [wink]")
