Tom Swift was among the Syndicate’s most successful creations. The first series was forty volumes published between 1910 and 1941 and featured a young inventor of Shopton, New York, who made airships and other gadgets and these were instrumentals in adventures around the world.
The inventive genius ran in the family. Tom inherited it from his father, Barton Swift, and his son, Tom Swift Jr. took the family’s inventions into the electronic and atomic ages and interplanetary space. The thirty-three volumes in this series were published between 1954 and 1971. The first three volumes were published on January 11, 1954.
The original series sold more than 6.5 million copies. Tom Swift Jr. had more than double that in the U.S. alone. Tom Jr. also sold in about a dozen countries around the world in nearly as many languages. This popularity attracted interest from prospective dramatic, radio, film, and television producers. It was also not uncommon for inquiries to come in for merchandise connected with these and other Syndicate series. Very few prospective deals were realized.
However, these shoes do not seem to have any direct connection to any Tom Swift series. The name appears to be a coincidence or an unauthorized usage.
Newspaper ads for the Tom Swift Shoes parallels the span of time of the Tom Swift Jr. series, from August 1954 to March 1965, following the first decade of the books.
The branding went so far on these shoes that the company even branded the Brannock device for measuring foot sizes.
