While sailing on the long island sound estuary, inventor and sailor Paul A. Sperry happened to slip off his boat and fall overboard. He was unharmed from the incident but was moved to do something about it, namely to create his own footwear that could grant sailors stability and confidence when on a slippery wet deck.

While sailing on the long island sound estuary, inventor and sailor Paul A. Sperry happened to slip off his boat and fall overboard. He was unharmed from the incident but was moved to do something about it, namely to create his own footwear that could grant sailors stability and confidence when on a slippery wet deck.

Sperry remained a product targeted at the niche boater community, until 1939 when the U.S navy negotiated the rights to manufacture the boat shoes for use by the sailors of the US Naval Academy, and as a result of the large increase in production, founder Paul A. Sperry sold the brand to the U.S Rubber company which produced the shoes from 1940 to 1979 when Sperry was purchased by the Stride Rite Corporation.

Demand for the practical boat shoe grew as they began to not just be a practical piece of nautical footwear, but increasingly were becoming fashion icons, notably after being worn by the Kennedy family on vacations and by mid 70s onwards were a cemented part of east coast fashion, notably being on the cover of the ‘Official preppy handbook’ in 1980.

Today, Sperry is owned by Wolverine World Wide after being purchased in 2012 for $1.23 billion USD.