Plastic wrap?

[jcusey]

Here's a question for Tony or whomever might know the answer:

Recently I came into posession of several issues of the Japanese shoe magazine Last. I can't read Japanese, but the pictures are great. One of the virtues of the magazine is that it has numerous pictures of workshops and production facilities for both RTW manufacturers and bespoke makers. In a number of these pictures, I saw partially-completed shoes with the uppers covered in what looked to be plastic wrap (if I remember correctly, at the Grenson factory, at the Paraboot factory, and at Foster's). Is this just to protect the uppers during making, or is there some other reason for doing this?

[Tony]

Yes, it is to protect the upper during production, mainly when the edges of the sole are being stained.

Kind regards

Tony