Inventor: Paul A. Sperry 
Patent number:  2206860 
Filing date:  Nov 30, 1937 
Issue date: Jul 9, 1940

This summer sees a million John F. Kennedy Juniors sporting decks and polos… …but the story behind the original Sperry Top-Sider is the stuff of legend, the sole was originally carved with a penknife by Paul Sperry after watching his cocker spaniel run across the ice without slipping one winter’s day in Connecticut. Flipping over Prince’s paw he noticed the hundreds of tiny wave like cracks and cuts going in all directions. Prince’s paws became the inspiration for Sperry’s patent, called Razor-Siping (an implementation of a process of splitting a shoe sole invented and patented in the 1920s by John Sipe). Sperry asked the President of Converse Rubber Company if he would make the shoe, his reply “I will make any damn thing that I can make a profit on”… Converse blanked out the soles, shipped them to Sperry and he cut the non-skid designs himself with Abercrombie & Finch eventually getting exclusive rights for distribution in New York City. Sperry’s shoe quickly became popular with boaters not only for its non-slip sole but also for its white color, which prevented the shoe from leaving marks on a boat’s deck. Before the Top-Sider boaters risked injury while walking on the slippery decks, now they could practically dance from bow to stern. The shoe remained a niche product until 1939 when the U.S. Navy negotiated the right to manufacture the shoe for its sailors. As a result of the Navy contract, Sperry’s business was purchased by the U.S. Rubber Co. (who sperry had originally approached to manufacture the shoe), which then marketed the shoe across the country.

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