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INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY IN THREADS
T
he past quarter of a century
has seen great change in the
footwear
industry
as
highlighted in this special
25th Anniversary Issue of
World
Footwear
. As far as the manu-
facturing side is concerned, these
have often been radical and far
reaching, such that shoe factories
now look and operate very differently
than they did in the past. However,
the actual way in which the shoe
itself is constructed remains
essentially the same and nowhere
more so than in the way upper
components continue to be stitched
together using sewing machines and
thread just as they have been ever
since Isaac Singer founded the Singer
Sewing Machine Company in 1862.
Up until the development of nylon
fibres in the late 1930s followed by
polyester in the early 1940s, upper
stitching threads were made from
natural fibres. These were primarily
cotton, with some silk, linen and hemp
used for specialist applications. The
advent of the new synthetic fibres
created a stitching revolution as they
were stronger and had better elasticity.
They also had greater resistance to
needle fray which meant they were
much easier to use. This improved
‘sewability’ in turn led to improvements
in needle design as lighter weight and
less bulky threads could be used and the
speed of the sewing machines
themselves increased.
The original synthetic threads were
simply twisted and lubricated but, as
sewing machines became faster and
new upper materials began to be used,
greater demands were placed on
thread performance. By the early
1960s, speeds on automatic sewing
machines were up to 5,000 stitches per
minute and the basic twist-spun type
of thread could no longer cope.
42
WORLD FOOTWEAR | JULY/AUGUST 2012
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Hidden changes
Spun thread
CREDIT: AMANN GROUP
CREDIT: PFAFF INDUSTIE MACHINEN AG
Core-spun thread