Shinerizing

Shinerizing was the trade name of Scientific Fur Cleaning Ltd. Scientific Fur Cleaning Ltd. was a business name registered in 1943 by a Toronto-based fur cleaning and storage company founded in the early nineteen thirties. The company name was derived from the company owners' last name (Hyman Shiner and sons Sol and Huck). Shinerizing invented many fur cleaning methods that are now industry standards worldwide, and their fire-engine red delivery vans were easily recognized throughout Ontario. The Shinerizing buildings were located at 570 and 572 King Street West and 457 Adelaide in downtown Toronto. In the early 1990s, the company was sold to a competitor¹. Their trademark blue and orange coat hangers continue to linger in the closets of Torontonians everywhere.

A comparable process in the US during the 1930s was Hollanderizing (named for Adolph Hollander's Newark-based company "A. Hollander Fur Dressers and Dyers Ltd."), giving rise to the now-mysterious lyrics in "Take back your mink" (Guys and Dolls, 1950):

Take back your mink

To from whence it came...

And tell 'em to Hollanderize it for some other dame!

Notes

¹ In fact, Shinerizing was sold to Hollanderizing, which now goes by the name Hollanderizing-Shinerizing. Another merger of sorts occurred in 2000 when Judy Shiner—daughter of Huck Shiner—and Richard Toker—grandson of Moe Toker (president of Hollander Canada in the 1960s) married. 2 The Shinerizing buildings remained in the family until 2009, when they were sold and demolished to build Fashion House condiminiums; the historic facade on King St was restored.