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The Volley Canvas Sport shoe was first developed in 1939 by Adrian Quist a famous tennis player of the era who was employed by Dunlop Rubber Aust.
Quist brought back from the US a pair of yachting shoes from Newport. He was so impressed with the sole grip and pattern that he had Dunlop put the sole on to a pair of canvas shoes, put in an arch support, and so the famous Dunlop Volley OC (orthapedically correct) with the herringbone sole was born.
Quist subsequently used the shoes with great success and caused quite a sensation from the time they appeared. For the next four decades they were better than any other sport shoes around and International tennis players would stock up when they were in Australia. They were used extensively for Court play in sports such as Tennis, Squash, Table Tennis and Badminton. |
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The original Volley had a black sole and the sole was not changed to a white sole until the mid 1950s to meet the demand for white soles on Indoor courts. In the early 1970s the shoe upper was changed from the OC Oxford style to the Volley International lace up badminton style with the sales increasingly dramatically over the next 3 decades.
Since 1939, sales have been estimated at around 26 million pairs. Volleys are not only worn as Sports Shoes, many sales have been for casual wear, work footwear, fishing, bushwalking, boating etc. With the current worldwide trend for comfortable canvas footwear Volleys in Australia are reaching new sales heights with their cool styles and colourful patterns. |
