Polish and blacking
A product that was introduced at the turn of the 20th Century, developed in response to the poor performance of dubbins and bootblacking on fashionable shiny boot leathers. The high-shine boot and shoe polishes gained rapid popularity and fuelled Victorian enterprise in the UK and across the world. In modern times with the introduction of man-made materials in work, leisure and sports footwear, the market has become diminished and very rationalised and is now a shadow of the depth and breadth of the polish industry of the previous 100 years.