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Du Pont showed as much savvy in testing and introducing Corfam as it did in developing it. First it piqued the curiosity of shoe manufacturers by sending them sample batches to make into test shoes. Du Pont inspectors went along and swept up the scraps to prevent them from falling into the hands of industrial spies. Then, to catch and correct such bugs as cracking and stiffness, the firm gave away thousands of shoes to people who would give them a hard-wearing test, notably orphans in institutions, mailmen and its own salesmen and executives—including Copeland, who still wears Corfam shoes.
The company decided to create an aura of luxury around the new synthetic by initially making it scarce and as costly as top-quality leather; prices for most of the shoes now range from $20 up, but Corfam may also appear in less expensive shoes in the spring. The public's response, despite the high prices and limited styles so far, has surprised even Du Pont. Corfam shoes are being turned out by 45 major shoemakers, and stores are heavily reordering. Already 700,000 customers have bought the shoes; Du Pont hopes that Corfam in 20 years will win 25% of the U.S. shoe market, which now amounts to 610 million pairs a year.
Mass production began this month at a new plant in Old Hickory, Tenn., and Du Pont is also building a factory in Belgium to produce Corfam for the European market. Barbed-wire fences and 24-hour guards at Old Hickory testify to Du Pont's unwillingness to share its hard-won secrets with a dozen competitors that are trying to crack the synthetic-leather market. Not even the shoemakers have been allowed inside the production area, and a sign at Old Hickory announces: "Our competitor is a nice fellow—smart too—so let him figure his own way." One reason for Du Pont's anxiety: computers that it rented from the Pentagon to calculate potential markets and profits fed back the prediction that world demand for shoes will exceed the supply of hides by as much as 45% by 1984.
Packaging Revolution. This continuous search for products—and the tendency of one link in the chain of discovery to lead inexorably to another —runs through Du Pont's entire history and legend. Founded in 1802 by Eleuthere Irenee Du Pont, a French immigrant who had studied gunpowder-making under Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, the company got its start by selling explosives to a young U.S. that needed them to clear the West and defend itself. It grew huge a century later by supplying 40% of the powder used by the Allies in World War I.
In the 1920s the company moved to less martial fields by buying the French-owned rights to a transparent cellulose thought to be of small value because it broke up in water; Du Pont found a way to waterproof it, called it Cellophane and revolutionized packaging. Du Font's growing group of scientists followed up with a series of breakthroughs: the first commercial U.S. synthetic rubber, the first nitrogen synthetic fertilizer, and the first synthetic fiber —nylon, which now comes in 450 varieties and rings up some $500 million in yearly sales for the company.