Guest Author - Gary King

The Lind Shoe Company has been owned and managed by the Lind family since 1919. Today they combine modern technology with the personal touch of a small business while continuing to offer their customers quality products.

Linds IS a household name in bowling!

Linds has provided high quality, performance shoes for bowlers for more than 85 years. Their experience goes back to the early part of the 20th century, when Swedish-born Erick Lind began working for the United Shoe Machinery Company, traveling from town to town setting up mechanized shoe factories and working as a superintendent. In 1919, Erick opened a shop making hand-crafted, custom-made street shoes.

In 1936, Leslie, Erick’s son, bought the company after having learned some of the trade from his father and honing his skills on his own. The legendary Linds bowling shoes were born in 1936. It started with a request from a customer who played on a team sponsored by Hamm’s Brewery. He wanted something added to the bottom of his shoe that would help him slide more easily, so Leslie put a buckskin sole on the shoe. Soon after that the entire bowling team had their shoes resoled. After using the resoled shoes, one of the customers summed up his enthusiasm and appreciation of Leslie’s inventive concept by saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got there!”

That same customer came back and asked Leslie to create an entire bowling shoe. Leslie, feeling even more creative than usual that day, decided he wanted to make something different and that he did. He constructed a shoe using shiny red leather left over from recently produced dancing shoes. After the Hamm’s team wore those bright red shoes in a tournament, the Stroh’s bowling team approached Leslie looking for some brand new shoes.

Linds continued to make colorful bowling shoes for various teams until World War II, when Leslie entered the military and the plant closed down. After the war, Linds started producing orthopedic shoes for the Veteran’s Administration. Then, in 1951, Leslie Lind decided to set up a booth to display his shoes at the ABC Tournament in St. Paul, Minnesota. Requests and orders started to pour in, many from top professional bowlers such as Paul Krumske, Junie McMahon, Chuck O’Donnel, and Andy Varipapa.

By 1970, the production of Linds shoes could not keep up with the demand. Leslie’s son, Jeff, saw this and moved the company to a larger facility in Stillwater, Minnesota. In 1976, with the demand for bowling shoes continuing to increase, Jeff asked Lind’s twelve largest distributors if they would stock “non-custom” shoes. With all the distributors agreeing to this request, Linds expanded into mass production of “stock” shoes sold at bowling centers and pro shops, while continuing to offer custom shoes.

In 1978, the company torch (which had been passed from Erick to Leslie) went to Jeff, who purchased the company from his father. Eight years later, the company had outgrown its Stillwater location and moved to the small town of Somerset, Wisconsin, near the famous Apple River. Linds continues to uphold its traditional standard of quality by using the finest materials and craftsmanship in all Lind’s shoes.

On February 1, 1999 the Lind Shoe Company purchased World Impex Bowling, to become Linds World Impex. Today, the business specializes in the importation, selling, and distribution of a variety of quality bowling products, including rental shoes, resale shoes, house balls, resale balls, bowling bags, bowling pins, steel bowling lockers, and a variety of pro shop accessories.

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I have ever found only one problem with a pair of Lind’s bowling shoes: since they do not wear out and are virtually indestructible, it is hard to destroy them. So, you use them to pro your doors open, to set bowling balls on, and whatever suits your fancy.

The quality of Linds shoes I do not even need to talk about or mention because they have been around forever and they just do not wear out!

I don’t know about you but I have found out that you get what you pay for these days and I found that out when I bought a pair of name-brand shoes at a chain store and felt the price was just too good to pass up. But later I found out that in the long run, I would have to end up and buy another pair. And if I did the same thing again, that would lead to another pair, etc. If you add two and two together, I could end up buying anywhere from two to five to ten pairs of bowling shoes, while if I had but bought a pair of Linds shoes in the first place, I would have only had to buy one pair.

There is another well-known name that has been growing some people tell me, a name that starts with D, but you know what, I have never bought a pair of them and just do not feel inclined to do that. Why? Because I am far from convinced that any bowling shoe on the market will stand up to the quality, fit, durability and plain old good looks of a pair of Lind’s bowling shoes.

The bottom line is, and you can put this in the bank: The last letter in the word BOWL is L. The first word in Linds is L. Which means that Linds and Bowling have a great deal in common. A pair of Linds bowling shoes may cost a little more but it spells comfort and quality and they LAST FOREVER….AND EVER…..AND EVER….