The machines turn out more than 120,000 pairs of laces daily for distribution in all parts of the United States and in several foreign counties. An average of 125 persons are employed in the operation.
MITCHELLACE operates its own woodworking shop. Maintenance and repair departments
and print shop. Employees are provided with a self-serve, self-charge commissary
at the rear of the building.
The corporation does an annual volume of business that approaches a seven-digit
figure, supplying laces to wholesale grocers, druggists, dry goods companies,
manufacturers of quality shoes, to mention a few.
But things weren’t always operated on such a big scale, reported D. D. Mitchell, president of the company in 1903 as a 14 year-old-shipping clerk.
His brother, Charles, was a retail shoe merchant in Chattanooga, Tenn., two years before the Mitchellace story began in 1902. But there was one feature about the business that Charles didn’t like.
HE TIRED of customers who returned again and again to get free replacement laces for shoes purchased at his store. So he put an idea to work and invented a crude wooden machine which would vend laces at the deposit of a nickel,.
The vending machine idea appealed to a Selfy Shoe Co. Sales man, A. E. Hume, who was traveling in the area. He brought Charles Mitchell to Portsmouth and introduced him to some important figures in the local shoe industry, John E. Williams, W. G. Williams and G. D. Selby.
The out come of those introductions was the Mitchell Mfg. Co., incorporated by the four men to manufacture the lace vendors.
That was in 1903– the same year D. D. Mitchell started with his brother’s company. He came here from Meridian, Miss., where he was born in 1888.
FIRST MACHINES were manufactured for the infant company by the Hamilton Foundry &Casting Co., but it soon was decided to buy just the castings from the foundry and to assemble the vendors here.
It followed, according to the Mitchellace president, that the early company should decide to produce its own laces for use in its vendors. Eight bralding machines were purchased in 1904 to weave the shoestrings.
By 1909, the Mitchell Mfg. Co. Building at Third and Gay Sts. Was filled with busy bralding machines. Attention had focused on the shoelace itself when it was decided to supply bulk laces to local shoe factories.
Plans were drawn for a larger plant and the company moved in 1910 to the present location of Mitchellace, Inc. The company continued to service its vendors, but manufacture ceased at the time of the move.
BUSINESS was flourishing when Charles Mitchell became interested in another venture and left the company in 1921. D. D. Mitchell, by that time, had worked through every department in the plant, up to the position of superintendent.
The company was reorganized that year under its present name. Mark W. Selby, a son of the original partner, became president. D. D. Mitchell was named secretary treasurer.
Mr. Mitchell moved up to president in March, 1948.
Starting on something as simple as a shoestring can become a complicated procedure in a 50 year period, the personable president testified.
The original vending machine offered every existing style of laceto the public. That was no feat, Mr. Mitchell said, since all laces were black and came in only four sizes.
LOOK AT THE figures quoted today by Mrs. Dorothy P. Ketter, sales manager at Mitchellace:
The company makes 26 rayon styles in 130 different colors, with 10 standard lengths for each shoelace. That’s 33,800 rayon laces.
Another 32 styles in 77 colors of cotton and mercerized laces are produced. These come in 16 stand and lengths. That’s 39,224 cotton laces.
Total: 73,224 different laces are manufactured now by the company that started out on four shoestrings.
THE PROCESS by which all of those laces are produced makes for a story in itself. Here’s an abbreviated version:
Cotton and rayon yarn in the 207 colors is wound on to bobbins or carriers by machines called winders and doublers. The winder supplies a single strand, while the doubler twists two or more strands together before winding it.
The carriers then are ready to be placed on one of the company’s 1,200 braiding machines. It’s on this complicated - looking machine that the lace or braid as its known in the business- is made.
A specified number of carriers are set in connecting grooves shaped like the figure 8. Half of the carriers in pairs go in one direction, weaving in and out among the other half moving in the opposite direction.
All make complete turns around the circular metal rim on which they’re set.
EACH CARRIER unreels a strand of its yarn through a metal eyelet at the
top of the machine. The weaving, circular path of the carriers braids the shoestring.
The idea for the machine came when a German inventor was watching a group of children dance around a Maypole, tangling their ribbons in the process, Mr. Mitchell explained.
The braid then is tipped. In this process a length of braid is measured off and a celluloid like tip is put on it. The company has 15 tipping machines for doing the job.
They measure, tip cut and count the laces at the rate of 110 tips a minute.
AT THE SPOT where the braid is to be divided, it is soaked with with an alcohol solution and placed in a dye. A piece of the celluloid like material is wrapped around it.
When the dye closes, the combination of heat, pressure and alcohol seals the tip to the braid. The tip then is cast in half, each half being one end of two different laces.
From the tipping machines, the laces go to the inspection department. If they’re all right, they’re sent to the finishing and shipping departments to be banded, packed and prepared for shipment.
The Mmachinery used in the process break down occasionally, so the company maintains its own machine and repair shops. Display racks and cases are needed for presenting the laces to the buyer and the public, so the company has its own woodworking shop.
FINALLY, the name Mitchellace must be kept before the buyer’s eyes, so the company operates its own print shop where labels are turned out by the thousands on its three presses.
Sixty percent of the company’s laces go to its biggest buyer.
Mitchellace Celebrates 50 Years In PortsmouthThe machines turn out more than 120,000 pairs of laces daily for distribution in all parts of the United States and in several foreign counties. An average of 125 persons are employed in the operation.
MITCHELLACE operates its own woodworking shop. Maintenance and repair departments
and print shop. Employees are provided with a self-serve, self-charge commissary
at the rear of the building.
The corporation does an annual volume of business that approaches a seven-digit
figure, supplying laces to wholesale grocers, druggists, dry goods companies,
manufacturers of quality shoes, to mention a few.
But things weren’t always operated on such a big scale, reported D. D. Mitchell, president of the company in 1903 as a 14 year-old-shipping clerk.
His brother, Charles, was a retail shoe merchant in Chattanooga, Tenn., two years before the Mitchellace story began in 1902. But there was one feature about the business that Charles didn’t like.
HE TIRED of customers who returned again and again to get free replacement laces for shoes purchased at his store. So he put an idea to work and invented a crude wooden machine which would vend laces at the deposit of a nickel,.
The vending machine idea appealed to a Selfy Shoe Co. Sales man, A. E. Hume, who was traveling in the area. He brought Charles Mitchell to Portsmouth and introduced him to some important figures in the local shoe industry, John E. Williams, W. G. Williams and G. D. Selby.
The out come of those introductions was the Mitchell Mfg. Co., incorporated by the four men to manufacture the lace vendors.
That was in 1903– the same year D. D. Mitchell started with his brother’s company. He came here from Meridian, Miss., where he was born in 1888.
FIRST MACHINES were manufactured for the infant company by the Hamilton Foundry &Casting Co., but it soon was decided to buy just the castings from the foundry and to assemble the vendors here.
It followed, according to the Mitchellace president, that the early company should decide to produce its own laces for use in its vendors. Eight bralding machines were purchased in 1904 to weave the shoestrings.
By 1909, the Mitchell Mfg. Co. Building at Third and Gay Sts. Was filled with busy bralding machines. Attention had focused on the shoelace itself when it was decided to supply bulk laces to local shoe factories.
Plans were drawn for a larger plant and the company moved in 1910 to the present location of Mitchellace, Inc. The company continued to service its vendors, but manufacture ceased at the time of the move.
BUSINESS was flourishing when Charles Mitchell became interested in another venture and left the company in 1921. D. D. Mitchell, by that time, had worked through every department in the plant, up to the position of superintendent.
The company was reorganized that year under its present name. Mark W. Selby, a son of the original partner, became president. D. D. Mitchell was named secretary treasurer.
Mr. Mitchell moved up to president in March, 1948.
Starting on something as simple as a shoestring can become a complicated procedure in a 50 year period, the personable president testified.
The original vending machine offered every existing style of laceto the public. That was no feat, Mr. Mitchell said, since all laces were black and came in only four sizes.
LOOK AT THE figures quoted today by Mrs. Dorothy P. Ketter, sales manager at Mitchellace:
The company makes 26 rayon styles in 130 different colors, with 10 standard lengths for each shoelace. That’s 33,800 rayon laces.
Another 32 styles in 77 colors of cotton and mercerized laces are produced. These come in 16 stand and lengths. That’s 39,224 cotton laces.
Total: 73,224 different laces are manufactured now by the company that started out on four shoestrings.
THE PROCESS by which all of those laces are produced makes for a story in itself. Here’s an abbreviated version:
Cotton and rayon yarn in the 207 colors is wound on to bobbins or carriers by machines called winders and doublers. The winder supplies a single strand, while the doubler twists two or more strands together before winding it.
The carriers then are ready to be placed on one of the company’s 1,200 braiding machines. It’s on this complicated - looking machine that the lace or braid as its known in the business- is made.
A specified number of carriers are set in connecting grooves shaped like the figure 8. Half of the carriers in pairs go in one direction, weaving in and out among the other half moving in the opposite direction.
All make complete turns around the circular metal rim on which they’re set.
EACH CARRIER unreels a strand of its yarn through a metal eyelet at the
top of the machine. The weaving, circular path of the carriers braids the shoestring.
The idea for the machine came when a German inventor was watching a group of children dance around a Maypole, tangling their ribbons in the process, Mr. Mitchell explained.
The braid then is tipped. In this process a length of braid is measured off and a celluloid like tip is put on it. The company has 15 tipping machines for doing the job.
They measure, tip cut and count the laces at the rate of 110 tips a minute.
AT THE SPOT where the braid is to be divided, it is soaked with with an alcohol solution and placed in a dye. A piece of the celluloid like material is wrapped around it.
When the dye closes, the combination of heat, pressure and alcohol seals the tip to the braid. The tip then is cast in half, each half being one end of two different laces.
From the tipping machines, the laces go to the inspection department. If they’re all right, they’re sent to the finishing and shipping departments to be banded, packed and prepared for shipment.
The Mmachinery used in the process break down occasionally, so the company maintains its own machine and repair shops. Display racks and cases are needed for presenting the laces to the buyer and the public, so the company has its own woodworking shop.
FINALLY, the name Mitchellace must be kept before the buyer’s eyes, so the company operates its own print shop where labels are turned out by the thousands on its three presses.
Sixty percent of the company’s laces go to its biggest buyer.