Abstract: To automate the roughening of the peripheral surface of a shoe upper in the region to be soled, the application of adhesive along such surface and a final deburring operation, prior to injection molding the last supported shoe upper in the region of lateral side mold elements is measured at the peripheral curvature to determine a curved line of spacial coordinates and angles of curvature starting at a preselected null point, and the values are stored. Another last supported shoe upper is moved by a rotary turntable to be scanned at selected points along its periphery for comparing the selected points to the spacial coordinates and angles of curvature. Any deviation therefrom is adapted to a second preselected null point, after which the shoe upper is guided by a computer controlled robotic device along the curved line starting from the second null point.