Boots Army Or Civil?this Is A Question:)

[biohazard69]

Reg.Jarek

[Johnny R]

These are military Mountain boots cut down to make civilian shoes or the uppers have been built using a military sole. Post War clothing shortages led to a lot of things like this.

[Soldat de Fer]

These are military Mountain boots cut down to make civilian shoes or the uppers have been built using a military sole. Post War clothing shortages led to a lot of things like this.

Hello
I agree . IMO the upper part was replaced , since you can see where it was re-sewn , and there is no visible evidence of the back part having been removed ( no traces of the sewing visible ). Interresting item !!!
Regards
P-Y

[Gene T]

One-piece uppers like these are favored by people needing water-resistant footwear (e.g., those living in the mountains), but they are expensive to make, as they require the use of very high quality leather. The green piping along the top, the finely scalloped edge of the tongue, the quality leather lining, the hidden toe box and heel counter - are all features that one would not usually associate with ersatz uppers meant to give a second life to worn-out military boots. Given that the uppers in this case are perfectly matched to the soles, it's rather improbable that they had begun life with a different set of soles - they had to have been either original to the soles, or made specifically to fit these soles.

In any case, once the heavy edging nails have been applied to the soles, machine-stitching becomes impossible. Disassembling old mountain boots, then re-stitching new uppers to thick leather soles by hand, using punches and awls, is not something a cobbler in his right mind would normally consider doing, even in times of hardship, as there are far easier alternatives when making ersatz shoes. Note that the stitches must go at an angle to come through the outsole beyond the nails, meaning that there is a lot more rock-hard leather to go through than the nominal thickness of the soles. This is assuming that the uppers are stitched through all layers of the soles, rather than just the inner and mid-soles - in which case the rebuild could not have been accomplished without first removing all nails, then taking apart the soles, then putting everything back together when the replacement uppers are attached - a feat that exceeds in difficulty and labor to that of building a similar pair of shoes from scratch.

Indeed, if this pair of shoes had been put together post war, it is much easier to imagine that surplus nails had been added to a pair of high quality civilian shoes that didn't have them initially, perhaps in order to make them last longer.

Alternatively, these shoes could have been made like this from the very beginning, as casual civilian mountain footwear, a sort of hybrid between traditional clogs and true mountain boots. I imagine the green piping and scalloped edging would make them look quite at home at the feet of a Lederhosen-wearing plumed Bavarian, for instance.

My long-winded $0.02

Gene T

[besslein]

cool boots for partys

[Bob Hritz]

Teutonic bowling shoes!

Bob Hritz