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Broadside - Greensfelder, Rosenthal Co... Rubber Boots And Shoes.... 1879 ....Pricelist Pamphlet / Broadside.....105 & 107 Walbash Ave., Chicago, Illinois...10" x 5.5"....0ne sheet printed on bothsides and folded in three (6 prnted pages). The beginnings of Florsheim & Co. founded in 1892 by Milton S. Florsheim. He and his father Sigmund Florsheim made the first shoes in Chicago. By the time of the Great Depression, the company had "2,500 employees, 5 factories, 71 retail outlets, 9,000 dealers and a network of regional wholesale distributors". FULL HISTORY: The Florsheim family's entry into the Chicago shoe business starts way back in the 1850s, when Siegmund Florsehim, a Jewish immigrant newly arrived from Hesse (modern-day Germany), started hawking kicks from a tiny storefront in the city. Soon enough, Siegmund's cobbling skills and old world charm had made him a junior partner at one of Chicago's largest wholesale boot and shoe firms: Greensfelder, Rosenthal & Co. A few years later, Greensfelder & Rosenthal were forced to rebuild from the Great Chicago Fire (October 8, 1871), but with reduced competition, the company actually built up a stronger business than it had before, running a booming storefront at the corner of Market Street and Monroe in the 1870s. According to one issue of the Boot and Shoe Recorder, it was really Siegmund Florsheim whose "perseverance placed the firm in the front rank of the trade," doing a particularly strong business "in the lumber and mining districts of Wisconsin and Minnesota." When Rudolph Rosenthal retired in 1886, a now 52 year-old Siegmund naturally stepped in, joining with Isaac Greensfelder to organize a new partnership: Greensfelder, Florsheim & Co. By now, the firm had begun manufacturing its own boots and men's shoes in Chicago, with a vision of severing its reliance on the old East Coast shoemakers and the expensive shipping costs that came with them. A team of 125 workers (100 men, 25 women) were in the company's employ by 1891. Pretty soon, old Mr. Greensfelder bowed out, as well, and the energetic Siegmund Florsheim finally had the reins all to himself, re-organizing yet another new shoe enterprise-this time with his three sons Milton, Louis and Felix joining him in the effort. "Florsheim & Co. was launched humbly but auspiciously in 1892 to pioneer these strident western fields in the manufacture of high class men's shoes for the standard retail price of $5," the Tribune recounted in a 1930 feature on the business. "Factory help then could be hired at $5 or $6 a week. The business was worth about $50,000 and was content with a daily output of from 100 to 200 pairs. Well-to-do company officials recall their elation when net earnings reached $2,500." Eldest son Milton Florsheim, who'd first started working for his dad as a teenager-dusting off shoes in his warehouse for $3 a week-was now a partner in the family business at age 24. Unfortunately, he was about to learn the first of many lessons related to the burden of having your name on the banner. In 1894, just as Florsheim & Co. was finding its footing, Siegmund Florsheim died at the age of 60, leaving Milton in charge of the firm at just 26. What some would describe as a legacy or inheritance was also a substantial load to carry. But Milton, having literally grown up with the city of Chicago and its shoe trade, marched forward, one shoe after the other.

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Physical Location

Arc.MS.56, Box 20, Folder 5