Lancashire Clogs from the Bata Museum

Shoe of the Month Podcast: Shoe Stories - Podcast 7: Lancashire Clogs
www.batashoemuseum.ca

Clip Clop Summer and autumn: It’s our Waterloo

Clogs are trendy again. Wooden shoes and wooden soled shoes are all the rage with the in-crowd with Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Celine, all showcasing them. The rise in popularity may have something to so with the popularity of Crocs (the 21st century cousin). The secret lies in the ease with which they slip off the feet at will, making them the ideal fashion assessories for travellers. Wooden clogs have been given a fashion makeover by the haut couture with instant appeal to tree huggers and those who hanker for nostalgia ( Abba are coming back together).

Discounts at Cloggs.com.uk

Online shopping in the UK is predicted to grow by 13.3% in 2009; accounting for 10% of the UK’s total spending. Consumers are turning to the internet more and more as they realise that branded products like footwear and electrical goods tend to be cheaper online. Shoe retailers like Cloggs.co.uk have introduced discount days on their website. To take advantage visit the website on a discount day and collect a promotional code which can be redeemed at the checkout. Cloggs.co.uk stocks over 20,000 items including its popular range of UGGs, Fitflop Boots, Timberland Boots and Caterpillar Boots.

The attraction of wooden shoes

Whilst clogs may have a workman like history and had brief flirtation with fashion they remain a sexy shoe appreciated by both males and females. There are several societies devoted to the appreciation of clogs. From the available literature it seems many admirers are attracted to the footwear because they have seen someone of the opposite sex wearing them. This may suggest the initial attraction is the idea of cross-dressing. Terms like "feeling sexy", "appearing attractive to others", or "exuding power in stature" appear popular reasons for wearing clogs. Most males consider clogs as mainstream fashion for females but cheeky and avante garde for men. Many associated shoes with the wearer indicating men pay particular attention to their partner's attire. Some cloggies love the sound they make and others revel in the different materials they are made from. Most wearers insist it is the comfort of the style which draws them to clogs and not the idea of the shoe as a sex toy. However the term "dipping " describes the action of feet sliding in and out of clogs. This habit is reportedly much appreciated by foot partialists and fetishists alike. The history of clogs is long and honourable one. Starting life as overshoes or galoshes the evergreen footwear has been part of the evolution of the modern exercise sandal and platform shoe. The shoe type has been associated with poverty and initatives to promote wearing clogs have always met with disappointment. The wooden shoe does however have many admirers. Perhaps because it is the shoe of ordinary people its many names are onimatopoeic. Yet despite this clogs or sabots have enhanced the English language. The term "sabotage" relates to disgruntled French workers who, in revolt, cut the sabots holding the railway lines in 1912. A popular misunderstanding is Luddites threw their wooden shoes into the machines to break them up. However likely this may be it is not the origin of sabotage

Wooden Clog in fashion

Wartime shortage in Europe meant leather was no longer available for boots and shoes. Instead governments encouraged people to turn to clogs as a practical solution. Although fashion magazines patriotically photographed their top models wearing clogs it failed to attract persuade to follow suit. By then most people associated clogs with working-class poverty and were less inclined to adopt them as a fashion. Government's efforts failed to encourage people to wear clogs during the war. Even when the middle classes were eventually forced to wear clogs it was very much under duress. Black marketeers were reported to wear clogs which had shoe prints going the opposite way. This was thought to confuse authorities trying to follow them. Black marketeers clogs were also reputed to contain secret compartments to hide clandestine information. The clogs hey day for fashion came briefly in the 1970s when the supergroup Abba were popular. Although the group are better known for their platform boots they were also photographed many times wearing wooden clogs. A popular line of fashion clogs followed which had the ABBA logo stamped on the outer side of the soles. Actor and singer Adam Faith loved wearing clogs especially in his most famous television role of Cockney larrikin, ‘Budgie’ Bird in Budgie. Wooden shoes remain popular in Scandinavia and are worn by both men and women.
More recently devotees include Brian May (Queen) and Whoopi Goldberg who has been seen wearing them in several of her movies including Made in America.

Clog Dancing

Clog dancing became very popular in Victorian times among the working class people in the North of England. The hardwearing wood against the cobbled streets allowed the dancer to create rhythm by tapping with the toes and heels. To make the clog lighter the uppers were cut lower at the ankle and the soles made from ash wood. Dancers required to be nimble because the steps were complex. Solo dancers danced on a slab of hardwearing wood that made a ringing sound. Amateur dancers added drama to their performance by using metal tags, nailed to their soles, which caused sparks to appear. Clog dancing was mainly a male preserve with troops of male clog dancers found all over the North of England. Gradually however female clog dancers became very popular in music halls. One of the most famous professional clog dancing troupe were J.W. Jackson's Eight Lancashire lads. A young Charlie Chaplain joined the troupe in 1896 and was paid one pound sterling per week plus his keep. Clog dancing was introduced to US, towards the end of the nineteenth century, where upon it was quickly transformed into tap dancing. The mania swept from coast to coast. At first the tap shoe was a modified clog but later these were replaced with tap shoes with metal jingles. Initially tap dancing was a male preserve but soon became popular with women and chorus lines. The girls wore special shoes known as Mary Janes, kept on with ankle straps fasten with a buckle or button. The shoes were often split clogs with half a sole and the heel in wood. To emphasise the sound some shoes had jingles attached to the shank. When the heels hit the floor they made a sound like two coins struck together. Clog dancing still can be seen at traditional folk festivals and dance exhibitions all over the world.

Clog Makers

Clogs incorporate many styles from slip-ons to lacing. Blutcher and Derby style lacing clogs are especially popular and well known companies continue to make clogs. These include the long established Swedish firmTroentorptoffel who produce clogs in Bastad(pronounced bow-stodd).Mia Clogs and Olof Daughters were Swedish producers of popular lines throughout the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Berkemann is a well known German company and make orthopaedic clogs (toeffler); Danish clogmakers, Dansko and Sanita still produce quality clogs. The construction of the shoe exhibits the secret of all shoes i.e. the treadline across the ball of the foot is set by matching the heel height with the toe spring. The rigid construction of the footwear allows the foot to act as an efficient lever during propulsion. Those clogs with curved insoles meet and marry the natural contours of the sole of the foot. This has the effect of reducing peak pressures across the areas of the foot. The same principal was used with exercise sandals, popularised by Dr Scholl in the sixties and seventies. Clogs are often dismissed as improper footwear for general wear on the basis they do not provide adequate support to the foot during movement. This may reflect more a fashion stigma attached to the footwear than any physical flaw in its makeup. Provided clogs fit with the treadline and ball of the foot in close approximation, then the shoe provides the same protection as any other. For those navigating reasonably flat surfaces and at a leisurely pace clogs provide adequate protection for most active people. There is a Conformite Europeenne (CE) classification for the Dutch clog. This was awarded in 1997 when the Netherlands organisation for Applied Scientific Research published safety requirement, results. According to CE regulations now clogs should be able to withstand temperatures of -20 degrees C to 150 degrees C without degrading; they should support peak pressures of 75kg and water should not destroy the soles. In the original tests pressure of 400kg on the instep and 750 kg on the nose of the clog failed to make an impression and lastly the clog endured the fall of a blunt axe of 20kg from a height of 50 cm. people. The following is a list of UK clog makers .