Pre-war and inter-war Romania
\nmanaged to develop its own stars, products made locally in workshops and
\nfactories. Among them, the Guban brand held pride of place. It managed to
\npreserve its reputation after the creation of the communist regime, and
\nremained an exception until 1989. We’ve talked about the history of shoe-making
\nand shoe polish produced by Guban factories with Marius Cornea, a curator with
\nthe Museum of Banat in Timi\u015foara.<\/p>\n
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\n
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Guban is a brand that was
\nnamed after Blaziu Guban, born in Bihor County in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
\nin 1904, in the countryside. Blaziu was a poor kid. He was adopted by a family
\nfrom Oradea. He only graduated the first 5 grades. Before the First World War,
\nhe worked as a caretaker at a pig farm. Then he got hired at a local shoe
\nfactory in Oradea, where he developed an interest in combing chemical
\nsubstances and materials. The Guban shoe polish was invented by Blaziu Guban in
\n1935, during his time in Timi\u0219oara. In
\n1932, the manager of a shoe factory in Timi\u0219oara invited Blaziu Guban to join
\nhis team. 1935 was the year when the fate of the Guban brand was decided. It was
\nthen that Blaziu came up with the recipe for the shoe polish. It was only later,
\nin 1937, that he registered the Guban Brand with the Trade Register, alongside
\ntwo other associates, under the name the Guban Timi\u0219oara Chemical Factories. The
\npolish guaranteed the maintenance of leather shoes. What is interesting is that,
\nin order to make his shoe polish known, Blaziu Guban called a factory in Timi\u0219oara
\nthat delivered tin boxes engraved with his name. In the first phase, Blaziu
\ngave the boxes to employees, his associates and friends, who in turn advertised
\nthis kind of shoe polish. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
For
\nthe postwar generations, the Guban name didn’t just stand for shoe polish, but
\nshoes themselves, mixing comfort and style in a locally-made product unlike any
\nother in the communist era. Marius Cornea gave us more details: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Of
\ncourse, Romania knows the Guban brand particularly from the prospect of its
\nshoe line. But the history of shoe-making started only in 1959. In 1948, when
\nfactories and enterprises across Romania were nationalized, Blaziu was the only
\nfactory owner from the former regime who, owing to his personal connection with
\nGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, the communist leader at the time, managed to hold on to
\nhis factory until 1952, when he was forced to relinquish both the Guban name, and
\nhis factory in favor of the state. Communist authorities promised, however, to
\nkeep him in charge until the end of his days. This is a notable exception in
\nthe history of Romanian factories at the time. So, until 1978, the year of his
\ndeath, Guban remained the director of his factory. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\nfirst shoes were produced at the factory in Timi\u0219oara in 1959. The design
\ncombined the elegance of dress shoes with the comfort of every-day shoes.
\nAnother feature was synthetic leather, invented by Blaziu’s son, Tiberiu, which
\nimitated crocodile and snake leather. The shoes grew very popular very fast, not
\njust among ordinary Romanians, but also among international personalities. Marius
\nCornea is back on the microphone. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
There
\nwas an entire marketing policy. The Ceau\u0219escu family, Nicolae and Elena, were regular
\nclients of the Guban factory in Timi\u0219oara. Elena Ceau\u0219escu was known for her preference
\nof the Guban brand. She usually wore brownish, greenish or pink shoes. The boot
\ntree used by Elena Ceau\u0219escu was on permanent display in an exhibition at the
\nMaria Terezia Bastion in Timi\u0219oara, an exhibition that displayed most local
\nbrands to official delegations over 1970-1980. In the same exhibitions you
\ncould admire shoes ordered by actresses such as Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida.
\nWhat is interesting is the fact that the exhibition also showed shoes ordered
\nby Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and poet Tudor Arghezi. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After
\n1989, the factory in Timi\u0219oara underwent a broad process of restructuring,
\nalongside most of Romanian industry. Still, the prestige of the Guban brand was
\nnot forgotten. (VP) <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One the best-known Romanian brands in the communist era<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":131186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45658,45659,45661,45660],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-blaziu-guban","tag-guban-factory-in-timisoara","tag-shoe-polish","tag-shoe-making"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n