Florence Melton: The Inventor of Slippers

Florence Melton: The Inventor of Slippers

In previous posts, we mentioned that slippers have a very long, rich, and extremely interesting history. Still, there’s a person who changed the concept of slippers: Florence Zacks Melton. She was responsible for developing the slippers with a foam sole that could also be washed, so when were slippers invented?

Life and Career

She was born in 1911 in a low-income family in Philadelphia, and since she was 13, she worked at a local store to help her family. When she was 19, she married her husband, Aaron Zacks, and moved to Columbus, Ohio.

Her husband Aaron and she founded the R.G. Barry Corporation in 1946. While working there, she developed many projects, like using latex for shoulder pads. And it was then that she realized she could use that material to line the slippers.

The idea proved to be very successful. It had several names, such as Angel Treads or Dearfoams, but whatever the name was, they sold very well. According to the company, about 1 billion slippers have been sold worldwide.

In later years after the huge success of the slippers, Florence let her sons take over the company while she was a consultant for the Product Development and Design department. Her son Gordon Zacks was the CEO of the company.

She married Samuel M. Melton in 1968, and with him, she created the “Florence Melton Adult Mini-School.” It’s an adult learning program that helps them learn about Jewish literacy. Teachers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have collaborated with the program, which is still active today with schools in cities like Sydney or Portland.

 

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3 comments

The birth year should be 1911, not 1991.

Amealiah

The birth year should be 1911, not 1991.

Amealiah

this is epic this help me on my project I got a A+ like a god :)

epic

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