Esquire Shoe Polish

Esquire Shoe Polish of Williamsburg by the company Knomark was the best selling shoe polish brand in America from the 1940s to 1960's. It is owned by Griffin Shoe Care Company.

The brand was created in 1938 by Sam and Albert Abrams, a chemist and entrepreneur from Brooklyn, NY. During the Depression, Albert took over an ailing boot polish maker, the Knomark Manufacturing Company of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In 1938, Sam and Albert bought the Esquire brand and built its reputation with an enormous advertising campaign. By 1944, the company had become the best selling shoe polish manufacturer in the US. An advertising campaign featured the singer and television star Kate Smith. In the late 1950s, they sold the Esquire Brand and the Esquire Building on 330 Wythe Avenue in Brooklyn. In 1957, Revlon acquired the Esquire brand which made annual sales of 15 million dollars. Revlon sold the Esquire shoe polish brand and other Esquire product brands 1969. Thayer Laboratories subsidiary, then Thayer Inc. The Sara Lee shoe polish company purchased the Esquire brand in 1987. In 1994, Papercraft Corp. from Pittsburgh, PA purchased the Esquire brand from Sara Lee. They sold it to Kiwi Brands in the mid 80's who discontinued the brand in favor of their Kiwi polish line. The building was acquired in 1984 and converted to a condo by Stephanie Eisenberg in 2000.

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