Most slipper fans know that the base shoes used for the ruby slippers were provided by the Innes Shoe Company, which at the time of making said base shoes, had locations in Los Angeles, Hollywood, and Pasadena.  Each authentic pair of ruby slippers that has surfaced thus far has an Innes logo placed on the insole of the right shoe, either a gold or silver embossed stamp, or a yellow woven cloth label.  Innes used a number of different formats for their logos over the years, and some authentic Innes shoes only list one or two of the locations on the stamp, depending on when the shoes themselves were made.

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The Innes Shoe Company was formed in 1898 as the "Innes-Crippen Shoe Company," formerly having been called the Snyder Shoe Company.  William Innes (not city councilman Daniel Innes, as many people think) founded the company, and at the time of the founding, the company had two locations: 258 South Broadway and 231 West Third Street, both in Los Angeles.  William would eventually move his company in Los Angeles to 642 Broadway in 1916, and open two additional stores located in Pasadena and Hollywood as well.  The additional shops were open by 1925, meaning the ruby slipper base shoes had to be made between 1925 - 1938.  William sold the company in 1947 and passed away in 1960.

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Innes has always been credited as the company that "made" the ruby slipper base shoes, but my research is leading me to believe otherwise.  I suspect that Innes Shoe Company was not actually a shoe factory, but just a shoe store, much in the way Payless Shoes sells many different brands from many different manufacturers.  The difference with shoe stores of the past was that while the shoes were made by a specific company, they were all labeled by the store that sold them.  This theory is supported by some advertisements I have found online which include the same shoes being sold at a number of shoe stores, and I had the fortune of finding one of these pairs.  Even though this pair was made by a manufacturer that was NOT the Innes Shoe Company, they were sold there and have the Innes logo stamped in the shoe.  This theory is also supported by many vintage shoes having the exact same composition, regardless of what store's logo is in the shoe.  It's probable that shoe stores were ordering shoes from just a few manufacturers which were then sold across the country under the names of many shoe stores.

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I'll periodically be updating this page with additional Innes information.  Unfortunately there is very little information out there aside from old advertisements and the location addresses, but once in a while I stumble upon something new and will be happy to share it here.

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