Born in Cleveland

Bron-Shoe’s lobby is decorated with framed photographs of its chief executives, starting with the founder, Violet Shinbach, who got her start in Cleveland.

In about 1930, she saw a small display of shoes painted a bronze color in a Cleveland department store. She liked the way the shoes looked, but she thought there was a better way to preserve them, Kaynes said.

Shinbach, who had been a kindergarten teacher, worked with a metal-plating company to come up with a more durable way to produce the bronze look. She then sold the product to her friends and family. From there, she began to do door-to-door sales, aiming her pitch at young mothers.

Right as she was starting this project, she and her husband, Sam, moved to Columbus, where he had gotten a new job selling men’s clothing. Once they relocated, his wife’s venture was growing so quickly that he left his job and helped oversee the building of a manufacturing plant Downtown. He was the company’s first president.

The Bron-Shoe Co. started in 1934, according to its official history, though it was not incorporated until the late 1940s. During those years, the company went from contracting with metal-plating firms to doing its own plating.

Kaynes said the rapid growth that began in the 1950s came thanks to advances in marketing. That was when the company started using the trade name American Bronzing Co. It began advertising in national magazines and was featured in a Time magazine article. The postwar baby boom led to a vibrant market for baby-related keepsakes.

By the mid-’60s, Bron-Shoe had about 100 employees and moved from the Downtown plant to the current home on Alum Creek Drive. At its peak, the company bronzed 1,000 shoes per day.