A La Mode – Part Thirteen
The Patented Elastic Boot
When I was young a rite of passage was mastering the art of tying one’s shoe laces so that they were neither a danger to life or limb and did not come undone within ten minutes. With the ubiquity of Velcro this is now a dying art along with cursive handwriting and the ability to string a sentence together without peppering it with the otiose like. The latter figuratively drives me mad.
As I was growing up an alternative for those who could not be faffed with tying laces was a boot which slipped on and was held firmly to the foot by an elasticated strip near the ankle. They are generally acknowledged to have been the brainwave of J Sparkes-Hall (1811 – 1891), a shoemaker from Sidmouth in Devon who plied his trade and found fame in London.
Sparkes-Hall was interested in the possibilities presented to the shoe manufacturing trade by the then recent innovations in rubber and elastic. He started off in the early 1830s making what we now know as galoshes, waterproof over shoes, to protect fashionable shoes from the dirt of the street and the worst of the English weather. And over time they developed into rather splendid affairs. An advert from around 1853 announces enamelled overshoes with leather soles no less, which were “so soft and flexible during cold weather” and “they readily adapt themselves to any boot or shoe the wearer may select.”
Yours for just 7s 6d a pair if you were a woman, 3s 6d for a child and 12s, including box heels and plush counters, for a chap.
But Sparkes-Hall was not content to kick his heels flogging over shoes. Shoe laces were an impediment if out riding – they had a tendency to get caught in the stirrups – and for the lazy or those pushed for time an easier form of attaching shoes to the feet was the Holy Grail. There were slipper-like shoes around but they were difficult to keep on and boots that were fastened by buttons were fiddly to get on.
Sparkes-Hall’s brainwave was to fit elastic to the side of his shoes but he was thwarted by the poor quality of elastic available at the time. They were simply not elastic enough. His breakthrough came in 1837 when he patented a slip-on boot, the innovative feature of which was a gusset made of tightly coiled wire and cotton. In 1840 he patented a boot which was fitted with what we would recognise as elastic.
In a marketing masterstroke, Sparkes-Hall gave the young Queen Victoria a pair as she had been moaning about how her laces hampered her riding. He later was able to announce proudly that “Her Majesty has been pleased to honour the invention with the most marked and continued patronage; it has been my privilege for some years to make boots of this kind for Her Majesty, and no one who reads the court circular, or is acquainted with Her Majesty’s habits of walking and exercise in the open air, can doubt the superior claims of the elastic over every other boot.”
Royal patronage having been secured, sales of the elastic boot rocketed and were often used in preference to tall riding boots up until the early 20th century. The Queen and her hubby, at least the 1853 advert claimed, also used the enamelled overshoes.
When you are slipping on an elasticated boot, you have Sparkes-Hall to thank.
