Shoe Goo is a polyurethane

Polyurethane

A polyurethane is any polymer composed of a chain of organic units joined by carbamate links. Polyurethane polymers are formed through step-growth polymerization, by reacting a monomer with another monomer in the presence of a catalyst.Polyurethanes are...

-based adhesive

Adhesive

An adhesive, or glue, is a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. The types of materials that can be bonded are vast but they are especially useful for bonding thin materials...

 intended for repairs of athletic footwear

Athletic shoe

Athletic shoe is a generic name for the footwear primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise but in recent years has come to be used for casual everyday activities....

 and rollerskates.

Origins

Shoe Goo was created in 1972 by Lyman Van Vliet, a 45-year old senior executive at Hughes Aircraft Co.

Hughes Aircraft

Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded in 1932 by Howard Hughes in Culver City, California as a division of Hughes Tool Company...

 with a degree in physics

Physics

Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 from Wayne State University

Wayne State University

Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...

. A frequent player of tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, Van Vliet was dissatisfied with the durability of the soles of his tennis shoes and sought a method to extend their life by repairing them.

Although Van Vliet already held several patents

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

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

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

. Nevertheless, he set to work to create a solvent which could be used to create a pliable surface coating for shoe soles, whipping up his experimental blends in a spaghetti pot. The ultimate result of Van Vliet's efforts was a polymer

Polymer

A polymer is a large molecule composed of repeating structural units. These subunits are typically connected by covalent chemical bonds...

that was eventually marketed as "Shoe Goo."

Van Vliet founded a company called Eclectic Products and began to market his new creation via small advertisements in tennis magazines, with his wife Sandy hitting the road to gain placement in tennis pro shops. Orders began to pour in. In 1974 Sandy Van Vliet convinced the retail giant K-Mart

Kmart

Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...

 to place an order, and Eclectic Products was firmly established. Although originally developed for footwear used by tennis players, Shoe Goo quickly gained a foothold in the booming jogging

Jogging

Jogging is a form of trotting or running at a slow or leisurely pace. The main intention is to increase fitness with less stress on the body than from faster running.-Definition:...

 market of the 1970s and 1980s.

Eclectic Products began modestly, beginning with just 22 orders during its first year of existence, 1972. By the end of its first decade, the company employed 15 people and touted annual sales of approximately $2 million, with Lyman Van Vliet quitting his job at Hughes Aircraft so that he could devote full time to his new enterprise.

Originally based in the garage of the Van Vliet's home in Palos Verdes in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

's South Bay, 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 the base of operations to Eugene, Oregon

Eugene, Oregon

Eugene is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast.As of the 2010 U.S...

.

Uses

Shoe Goo provides a pliable adhesive to repair separated shoe components and can be used 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 both protect and repair damage done by the sandpaper-like "grip tape

Grip tape

Grip tape is an adhesive backed friction-surfaced material usually attached to the deck of a skateboard or longboard to give the rider more friction to control the board. It is sometimes used decoratively, since it can come in many different styles and colors. The most common type of grip tape is a...

" of the skateboard

Skateboard

A skateboard is typically a specially designed plywood board combined with a polyurethane coating used for making smoother slides and stronger durability, used primarily for the activity of skateboarding. The first skateboards to reach public notice came out of the surfing craze of the early 1960s,...

. Cricketers

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 use Shoe Goo for minor repairs to the bat

Cricket bat

A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624....

 and for waterproofing the toe of the bat

Cricket bat

A cricket bat is a specialised piece of equipment used by batsmen in the sport of cricket to hit the ball. It is usually made of willow wood. Its use is first mentioned in 1624....

.

The product is also used by hobbyists in lieu of rubber cement

Rubber cement

Rubber cement is an adhesive made from elastic polymers mixed in a solvent such as acetone, hexane, heptane or toluene to keep them fluid enough to be used. Water-based formulas, often stabilised by ammonia, are also available...

 as an assembly adhesive for radio controlled models

Radio-controlled car

Radio-controlled cars are self-powered model cars or trucks that can be controlled from a distance using a specialized transmitter...

 of cars and aircraft and as a waterproofing agent for model boats.

Shoe Goo is also commonly used amongst skydivers to repair and strengthen the soles of 'booties' on relative-work jumpsuits.

The Shoe Goo product has been repackaged for other uses, with Eclectic Products making use of the alternate brand names "Sportsman's Goop," for sales as a waterproof seam-sealer, and "Shoemaker in a Tube."

Further reading

• Art Harris, "Gizmos Add Life to Tennis Gear," The Blade [Toledo, OH], October 14, 1978.

External links

• Eclectic Products, Original Shoe Goo home page, eclecticproducts.com/ Retrieved October 17, 2010.
• Eclectic Products, "Shoe Goo Material Safety Data Sheet," updated November 19, 2009.
• Network Distribution, Shoe Goo home page, network-uk.co.uk/ Retrieved October 17, 2010.