On January 27, 1964, Corfam, a synthetic substitute for leather, was introduced to the public. Expected to grow in popularity and gain a huge market share, especially in footwear, Corfam didn’t turn out to be the success its makers wanted it to be. A.S.Ganesh takes a look at this poromeric substance that gave us a business lesson through its failure...

We often busy ourselves with scientific stories and the success they inspire. So much so that we sometimes even make the mistake of assuming that all such innovations turn out to be winners. But by simply looking around ourselves, and by learning from our own personal experiences, we do know that this can surely not be the case all the time. The story of Corfam, a synthetic substitute for leather first unveiled to the public in 1964, refers to one such incident.

Be it shoes, handbags or wallets, leather continues to be a popular material to work with, even now. It was the case over a hundred years ago as well, and it also implied that the stage was set for synthetic substitutes to compete with it.

DuPont enters the scene

The search for a synthetic replacement for leather began early in the 20th Century. The chemicals company DuPont, which would go on to have tremendous success with another synthetic material nylon from the 1930s, entered the business as early as 1910. They did this by buying the Fabrikoid Company that specialised in producing nitrocellulose-coated cotton fabric. This fabric was mainly employed in binding books and in the automotive industry, but could be made into other objects as well.

It was only in the 1950s that DuPont scientists finally succeeded in creating a material that not only looked like leather, but also had a highly shiny gloss surface. The substance was poromeric, meaning it was made by bonding a plastic-like coating on a fibrous base substrate. The term “poromeric” was coined by DuPont, deriving from the words “porous” and “polymeric”.

Its shiny appearance along with its high cost of production led DuPont to market the material mainly as footwear, especially as dress shoes. With employees agreeing to wear such shoes for a certain amount of time and provide feedback, DuPont had over 15,000 wear-tested shoes by 1962.

One step forward, many steps backward

The material, branded as Corfam, was brought to the shoe industry in the 1963 Chicago Shoe Show. Even though primarily targeting the footwear market, other items, including handbags, were made of Corfam and tested. On January 27, 1964, the public was made aware of Corfam’s existence.

DuPont believed that they had a winner in their hands. They were so overconfident that they predicted that by the 1980s, a quarter of the footwear market would be using Corfam. Production and sales did start off as per their outlook, with nearly 7.5 million Corfam shoes made and sold by 1969.

By then, however, problems started cropping up. Shoes made of Corfam didn’t breathe like those made of real leather, resulting in users complaining about hot feet. Corfam didn’t stretch like real leather either, which meant that users had to get an exact fit while buying.

These reasons, along with the increasing popularity of vinyl shoes, meant that consumers started moving away from this product. Sales plummeted so much that DuPont ended the project in 1971, merely seven years after starting production and trumpeting their success.

A business lesson

Even though poromeric shoes continue to exist, especially in military circles, Corfam was doomed. It is for this reason that Corfam, despite being a scientific success, is more often referred to in business lessons. For a new product vying for a share in an existing market should not just be happy to match with the competition, but should probably outdo it in more ways than one.