Day 23: Heyyy man where you get your shoes from? If black people know one thing is that our shoes have to look fly by any means necessary. Well did you know that Jan Ernst Matzeliger changed the shoe game forever. Born on September 15, 1852 in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. Jan Ernst Matzeliger first learned about the shoe trade in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania then in 1877 he moved to Massachusetts to his interest in the shoe industry. Shoemaking was quite hard back then because shoes were made by hand in order to get the customer size by creating a mold called a "last" from which the shoes or sized and shaped. The most difficult part was making the sole for the upper shoe because it took a lot of work to sew the two components together however in 1883, Jan Ernst Matzeliger invented an automated shoemaking machine that quickly attached the top of the shoe to the sole of the shoe. His machine produced more than 10 times what human hands could create in a day. His machine was extremely effective on September 15, 1991 he was honored with a U.S postage stamp. However on August 24, 1889 Jan Ernst Matzeliger died of tuberculosis he never got a chance to see how his invention changed the shoemaking game, some called him "Dutch nigger" and "nigger lasted" and his name is not mentioned in history books so today we're honoring Jan Ernst Matzeliger for his invention to make shoemaking easy thanks for making my shoes look good.