Prior to the late 1880’s, boot and shoemakers did not use rubber. Instead, the soles of most footwear was made of leather, wood, or both. Often tiny nails called hobnails, were driven into the sole of work boots, to protect the leather soles, which wore very easily.
It wasn’t that rubber hadn’t been discovered. Actually, rubber had been used from as early as the 1770’s…mostly to erase pencil marks.
The very first instance of rubber being used on boots was in 1888, in the form of an outer shoe, to be pulled over a hobnail boot.
The reason?
A police officer in the Whitechapel area of London got the idea. The rubber absorbed the sound of his footsteps when he was on patrol, making it easier for him to creep up on Jack the Ripper, perhaps catching him the act of murder.
It wasn’t that rubber hadn’t been discovered. Actually, rubber had been used from as early as the 1770’s…mostly to erase pencil marks.
The very first instance of rubber being used on boots was in 1888, in the form of an outer shoe, to be pulled over a hobnail boot.
The reason?
A police officer in the Whitechapel area of London got the idea. The rubber absorbed the sound of his footsteps when he was on patrol, making it easier for him to creep up on Jack the Ripper, perhaps catching him the act of murder.
Constable Chuck Taylor, on patrol...
The idea caught on.
And the name these police officers gave to their overshoes?
Sneakers.
Jim Out.
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