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The iconic kiwi shoe polish is to get new owners as Sara Lee is preparing to divest itself of it’s household products division.

Kiwi shoe polish was first made in Melbourne Australia in 1906  by Scottish expatriates William Ramsay and Hamilton McKellan. Their formula was a major improvement on previous formulas. It preserved shoe leather, made it shine, and restored color. By the time Kiwi Dark Tan was released in 1908, it incorporated agents that added suppleness and water resistance. Australian-made boot polish was then considered the world’s best.

As of 2005^[update] it is sold in almost 180 countries. It is the dominant shoe polish in some countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, Australia and New Zealand, where it has about two-thirds of the market.

This shoe polish was named by William Ramsay, who named it Kiwi as a homage to his wife, Annie Elizabeth Meek Ramsay, a New Zealander, (otherwise known as a Kiwi). Its success in Australia expanded overseas when it was adopted by both the British and American armies in World War I.

Another story was that the kiwi shoe polish was because the ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corp) troops in World War I used this polish on their boots. The allied troops then nicked named the polish Kiwi, however it was clear the brand was used before the war.

Shoe polish was to be found just about everywhere Allied troops ventured. American war correspondent Walter Graeber wrote for TIME magazine from the Tobruk trenches in 1942 that “old tins of British-made Kiwi polish lay side by side with empty bottles of Chianti.” A story indicative of the rise in global significance of shoe polish is told by Jean (Gertrude) Williams, a New Zealander who lived in Japan during the Allied occupation straight after World War II. American soldiers were then finding the dullness of their boots and shoes to be a handicap when trying to win the affections of Japanese women.

When the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces arrived in Japan—all with boots polished to a degree not known in the U.S. forces—the G.I.s were more conscious than ever of their feet. The secret was found to rest not only in spit and polish, but in the superior Australian boot polish, a commodity which was soon exchanged with the Americans on a fluctuating basis of so many packets of cigarettes for one can of Kiwi boot polish.

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