Shinola was a twentieth-century shoe-polish company that went out of business in 1960. The brand name was acquired by Shinola Detroit in 2011.
The name "Shinola" was trademarked in 1903, and the shoe polish company of that name was founded at 822 Jay Street, Rochester, New York in 1907. The name was thereafter acquired and a new company revived under the old name. It gained popularity during World War I and World War II as an effective shoe polish. The original trademark was filed to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in 1929 and registered in 1930 by '2 IN 1-SHINOLA-BIXBY CORPORATION' (NJ, USA). According to a review in the trade magazine Commercial America, the tin polish container was notable for having a "key" that could be turned to separate the lid from the can, an innovation of the time. In a 1945 ad that ran in Popular Mechanics magazine, Shinola marketed itself as a wax that could also be used as a polish for scratches in furniture, a polish for linoleum, and a finish for toy models (e.g. airplanes).
Ultimately, the company went out of business in 1960.
Shinola Detroit has added a shoe polish to its product line. It is touted as better than the original, and produced "in small batches in Chicago by C.A. Zoes Manufacturing, a family-owned company since 1905."
Shinola was immortalized in colloquial English by the phrase "You don't know shit from Shinola" which first became widely popular during World War II.
In the 1979 film comedy The Jerk, the character Navin R. Johnson (played by Steve Martin) is tested by "Daddy" (Richard Ward) on whether he knows the difference between shit and Shinola before leaving home.
The phrase was used to a similar effect in Cleopatra Jones.
The 1992 movie Basic Instinct features Gus telling Dr. Lamott, "Most times I can't tell shit from Shinola, Doc. What was all that you just said?"
Dolly Parton wrote the song "Shinola" – which also uses a lyric that plays on the colloquial phrase – for her 2008 Backwoods Barbie album.
Ween released a 2005 B-side and unreleased odds and ends compilation album — titled, Shinola, Vol. 1 on Chocodog Records — which plays on the colloquial phrase.
The phrase has been grist for the mill for various musicians and artists. See Shinola (Energy Orchard album), an album by early 1990s Irish band Energy Orchard; Shinola (John Scofield album), a live album recorded in 1981 by jazz musician John Scofield; Shinola, an indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina that existed from 1994–1997; and Shynola, a group of visual artists from the UK that had exhibitions titled "Shinola."
Comedian George Carlin used the phrase in his famously banned shtick, "Filthy Words", a/k/a "Seven dirty words" which became immortalized in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, a First Amendment constitutional decision by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Shinola Detroit—a luxury lifestyle brand that sells watches, bicycles, Shinola shoe polish, and other goods—legally acquired the name after the company's founder heard the expression "shit from Shinola" used during a dinner party. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel has used the phrase.
It has been scientifically proved and waggishly reported that instruments can distinguish shit from Shinola.
