In the late 1800s, shoes were still a luxury for many—slow and costly to make by hand. But in 1883, an inventor named Jan Ernst Matzeliger changed everything.
Born in Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) in 1852, Matzeliger moved to the U.S. and started working in a Massachusetts shoe factory. There, he noticed a problem: attaching soles to shoes—known as “lasting”—had to be done by hand, which kept production slow. He believed there had to be a better solution.
So, he created one.
Matzeliger invented the lasting machine, a device that could do the work of ten skilled shoemakers in a fraction of the time. This machine transformed the industry, cutting shoe prices in half and making sturdy footwear affordable for working families all over America. Sadly, he passed away from tuberculosis at just 36, before he could see the full impact of his invention.
Jan Ernst Matzeliger was not only a genius—he was a visionary who transformed an entire industry. Though his name rarely appears in textbooks, every pair of shoes we wear today follows in the footsteps of the path he made possible.
