History On Van Dal Shoes.

There is a Van Dal factory located in Norwich which specialised in women's footwear(women's feet have gotten a lot wider over the years). This opened in 1918 and was noisy dangerous work. They employed women to do the delicate stitch work and men to operate the machinery. During the 1970's they specialised in gold, silver, brocade and reptile skin shoes. At one point they were even exporting to places as far away as New Zealand.

Startright shoes was situated in Norwich as well, they opened in 1872. In 1918 they began making children's shoes and used the V shaped heal for stability. The V shaped heal is now very common and most companies use it. They were also the first to start measuring feet to insure a good fit. As the company got bigger they were exporting up to 30'000 shoes a week. In 1984 they were having the parts built in China because the labour was cheaper and then assembling them in England so they could say they were made in England.

Also here is a link to Van Dal so you can see it all for yourself. :DD

http://www.vandalshoes.com/

Killing of my Vans shoe.

The Van Dal shoe company uses Florida shoes to make their shoes in Norwich. This is where we went today. David then gave us a speech on what kind of shoes they make and target audience (Middle aged women). He also gave us a quick health and safety speech, keep on the blue path etc.

We then had an all access tour of the factory and we learnt the steps of how they make a shoe (this will be explained in more detail in the "how to make a shoe, Florida style" post). We also got given some free samples of the shoe throughout the different processes.



Van Dal Shoe facts.

1. Van Dal shoes are the only people to use ion-masking technology. This is done using military secrets and completely waterproofs any material. Van Dal have patented this so they are the only company to have this. It adds £5 on average to the retail price of any item.
2. It is still a mainly sexist work place in any factory, with women doing the delicate work and men operating the machinery
3. Shoe boxes are put together by criminals as community service.
4. The plastic bit on the end of a shoe lace is called an aglet

• The Designer sees what kind of things are selling using the magazine Insight. Done by a person.
• They then make a mood or theme board to just give themselves an idea of what could be done,  different colours, heels, materials etc. Done by a person.
• They then do a few quick sketch's and choose an idea which they can think would sell. Done by a person.
• They then do an annotated sketch's of different views. These have measurements and list of materials so the people who make it don't get confused and the shoe turns out exactly how the designer wants it  to. Done by a person.





VAC and shoe last

• They then melt a plastic VAC round a shoe last. This gives the designer a cheap quick idea of what the shape of the shoe does. Done by a machine.
 




Design on a computer


• They then give the computer a design and it digitalises it. They can then change it easily and it will be sent to other computers easily. Done by a machine.
• The Computer then sends the perfected designs to the Laser Cutter and it cuts out card templates. Done by a machine.
• The templates are then taken into the main part of the factory where the "clicker" operator (so called because the tool he uses clicks while he uses it) cuts out the shapes of the shoe from different materials. Done by a person.
• The shoe is then sewed together. Done by a machine.




Shoe abouts to be dried

• The sole and heel are then glued onto the rest of the. Done by a machine.
• The shoe then has the bottom roughed it's got grip and people dont' fall over all the time. Done by a machine
• The shoe is then polished and soft materials (soft materials depend on the shoe) glued on. Done by a machine.
• Finally the shoe is dried and and loose threads are removed. Done by machine and person.



Letter to the Red Cross charity.

Dear Sir or Madam,

This a letter of apology for our lack of donations. Our campaign hasn't been as successful as we would of have wanted it to be. While we failed on the other hard we raised awarness for the Red Cross charity, mainly the one in Wymondham which would help in the new year with the old toys. One of the many reasons why we think this failed was becuase that it is close to christmas and many people have already donated to make space for this time of year, they may of already dontated to your chairty. We are very sorry that we couldn't help and it would be nice to work with you in the future.

Yours faithly

The CCCC.

Browick Road Infant School

Today we went to Browick Road Infant School we did our performance and our workshop, I feel like the vist could of gone better however I will explain in this blog post.

We made our way to the school during first period it took a little while longer because of the snow, this didnt effect our performance, but we had to go straight into our performace. We were a few people away from our group; Bradley and Hollie, thankfully Miss steped in from Ellie's part who switched to Hollie's part and Ryan took over Bradleys part but I have to say Ryan did a very good job only having a few words from Me and Ellie so it wasnt so bad if he got a few words wrong.

So even though we were late and had a few crew members down it didnt stop us doing our best, whenever i pefrom it always gets to me so my words were a little whimpy if you can call it that. As for everyone in my group they were amazing and Ryan only knowing what to say for 6 minutes as very good. We missed in total only like 2 lines which was pretty good. Me and Ellie to introduce the whole thing which was pretty good meaning that we could do straight into it. Overall it was good.

Then we did the work shops with the year 3 students.

Bernardo's Ad

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) have to date received almost 400 complaints over the Bernardo's “Break the Cycle” ad campaign.The number of complaints issued suggests that viewers are clearly taking notice but perhaps for the wrong reasons. They are complaining about their exposure to scenes that are an everyday reality for children around the country. Those children can’t switch off from the violence. The fact that audiences are shocked serves to demonstrate our disproportionate interest in the crime (rather than on its causes); a society keen to point the finger at the ‘hoody’ subculture yet unable to stomach the issues that often lead to the commission of these crimes. The ad the strongest image is that of the father hitting the child. Child abuse is not something that can be watched by anyone.Over all I think this Ad is very powerful and hard hitting, it had some effect on me when I first saw it.

Vans.

On March 16, 1966, at 704 E. Broadway, in Anaheim, California, Paul Van Doren and three partners opened up their first store. The Van Doren Rubber Company was unique in that it manufactured shoes and sold them directly to the public. On that first morning, 12 customers purchased Vans deck shoes, which are now known as Authentic. The shoes which were made that day were ready for pick-up in the afternoon.

During the early sixties, Randy’s had become the third largest manufacturer of shoes in the US. But they had a factory in Gardenvale California that was losing a million dollars a month. Paul Van Doren, his brother Jim Van Doren and long time friend Gordon Lee were given the task of straightening out the factory, and after 8 months they turned the west coast factory around and it was doing better than the one back in Boston.

Three months later Paul Van Doren sat his five kids down and announced he was quitting his job to start a new shoe company. “Don’t worry we’re going to be fine” he said to his children, who weren’t at all concerned. Their dad was fanatical about cleaning and they were hoping this meant they only had to wash his car every second day instead of every day as it was currently.