WW2 US NAVY CANVAS DECK SHOES

Part of the content of a regulation US NAVY seabag:the hard to find canvas deck shoes.here's is a dead stock example.good luck up grading this one !!.....
Two in one i must say .......
Always great when able to read the actual contract #.....

According to the company's history ,the first top sider was designed in 1935 by Paul Sperry,who's older brother was the illustrator Armstrong Sperry. As an avid boater,Paul,like most boaters, complained about the slippery deck of his boat.Sperry had tried without success,first, to design a shoe that would provide improved traction while on the deck "fighting" the elements. His successful design then came with a pattern inspired by the grooves or cracks on his dog's feet.He combined a leather upper-shoe with a herringbone pattern of grooves on the sole. The cutting of grooves in the sole of the Top-Sider was an implementation of a process of splitting or siping a shoe sole invented and patented in the 1920s by John Sipe.

Sperry's shoe quickly became popular with boaters not only for its non-slip sole. The shoe remained a niche product until 1939 when the U.S. Navy negotiated the right to manufacture canvas shoes using sperry's special sole for its sailors. As a result of the Navy contract, Sperry's business was purchased by the U.S. Rubber Co., which then marketed the shoe across the country.