Vintage work crew photos

[Hoosiersmoker]

We used to have a Ball Band factory here (in Mishawaka, IN). My mom used to go down to their Wholesale" shop and get all 4 of us boys Red Ball Jets, high top tennis shoes. They sold the "defective" shoes there for next to nothing.


Later it became Uniroyal and they made all kinds of very stinky rubber products like car floor mats, shoe soles, tire compounds etc. In 2000 it was imploded as the start of a beautification project to include a new, modern park, small shops and a now brewery in honor of both Ball Band and the old Camm Shellinger brewery just West of the factory. I know what a lot of the workers from Ball Band did on break!


If you stand in just the right place at this memorial, it places the sculpture of the factory exactly where it stood before it's demolition. It's actually a pretty cool idea!. Uniroyal expanded the factory to the other side of the main street bridge. (seen on left side of the memorial). Of course, they were also singled out as the largest polluter of the St Joe river! Couldn't eat fish out of there for 20 years! now you can pull 30 lb steelhead out of there thanks to installation of fish ladders and a newer hatchery up river.