Each culture has a contribution to the world of fashion, dating back centuries. Across the world there are innovative companies preparing to introduce new textiles, cuts, tools, styles, and many other things. Such stands true as we celebrate black history.
We bring light to black pioneers that have changed the industry as we know it. Jan Matzeliger, found something that need that needed to be perfected, and in 1880 he invented a model show machine.
Jan Matzeliger
September 15, 1852 – August 24, 1889
The lasting-shoe machine was built out of hardware bits, and could produce shoes 10 times faster, then the amount of shoes that a hand lasters craftsmen could sew manually by hand. Which at the time was only 40 shoes per day.
Mr. Matzeliger was first offered $50 for his invention, and knowing it’s worth he declined the offer. He then begin working on a much larger machine, in which he was then offered $1,500. Which also he declined
In 1889 the demand for Jan Matzeliger shoe lasting machine sky rocketed, and companies grow internationally from his invention. In the late19th and early 20th centuries Lynn, Massachusetts became the shoe making capital of the world19th and early 20th centuries.
Jan Matzeliger, died 6 years after his invention, but is still remembered as a pioneer that changed the productivity of fashion as we know it. 
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