Development
While a number of older leather preserving products existed (including the Irish brand Punch, which was first made in 1851, and the German brand, Erdal, which went on sale in 1901), Kiwi's invention in 1906 made it the first shoe polish to resemble the modern varieties (aimed primarily at inducing shine). Ramsay and fellow Scottish expatriate Hamilton McKellan began making boot polish in a small factory in 1904 in Melbourne, Australia. They developed and improved their new formula and Ramsay launched the product in 1906 and began marketing it in Melbourne. Ramsay loaded boxes of the polish on his horse and cart, and sold it to farmers to protect their boots.
Kiwi was a major improvement on previous brands. It preserved shoe leather, made it shine, and restored colour. By the time Kiwi Dark Tan was released in 1908, it incorporated agents that added suppleness and water resistance. Australian-made boot polish was then considered the world's best. A range of colours became available, and exports to Britain, continental Europe, and New Zealand began.
A rival brand of the time was Cobra Boot Polish, based in Sydney. Cobra was noted for a series of cartoon advertisements in The Sydney Bulletin, starting in 1909, using a character called "Chunder Loo of Akim Foo." (The word chunder, meaning "to vomit", possibly originated through the rhyming slang of Chunder Loo and spew.)
New Zealand is the only nation whose colloquial identity has been assisted by a brand of shoe polish. In the early years of the European settlement a variety of symbols — predominantly the moa, silver fern, Southern Cross and kiwi — were used to represent the new nation, and even by the early 1900s there was no clear consensus. The spread of Kiwi shoe polish around the world enhanced the popular appeal of the Kiwi as New Zealand's national symbol.
Read more about this topic: Kiwi (shoe Polish)
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