Braw blog Lustforshoes

When is an ugg boot not an ugg boot?

Uggs continue to be high fashion everywhere else except Australia and New Zealand. The must have “celebrity wear", is big business overseas and estimated to be in excess of $800 million in the US alone. The American Company Deckers Outdoor Corporation acquired the name Ugg RAustralia in 1995 but is not too happy about Australian ugg boot makers continuing to sell the sheepskin boots under the name ‘ugg.’ The US footwear giant is once again legally challenging an Australian company from using the "ugg" name. Deckers Outdoor Corporation has filed a trademark infringement suit in United States District Court in California against Emu Australia in a bid to stop the Victorian-based firm from using the title on its sales website. It appears the Australian company are a favoured boot in many stores throughout US and Europe and Deckers are not overly chuffed. They claim the continued success of Emu Australia and the other shoe makers producing fake uggs is seriously undermining their product in the marketplace. Deckers have previously sought legal regress to restrict the use of the trademark ugg name in Australia but this failed because "ugg" is considered a generic term for sheepskin footwear and used by almost 70 sheepskin footwear makers. Geelong based Emu Australia does not promote their products in overseas retail stores as "ugg boots". Emu Australia also makes sheepskin and leather jackets, gloves and superfine wool garments have recently launched Denimwool jeans under a new slim fit Valla Beach Denim label, which looks sure to be a best seller. Ideal companion for cosy ‘uggs’ in the cold and inclement weather.

Band Aid - Do They Know its Christmas 1984

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band – I Wanna Find a Woman That'll Hold My Big Toe Till I Have to Go

Tron the Sandal

Footwear designer Edmundo Castillo has produced a pair of LED light-up sandals as homage to Tron: The Legacy. The Walt Disney-produced sci-fi film is a sequel to the original 1982 film Tron. The strappy platform sandals are made from the same electroluminescent material used for the costumes in the film and retail for only $1,650 (1,238 euros) per pair.

Feet and Footwear: A Cultural Encyclopedia: Definate stocking filler this Christmas

Feet and Footwear: A Cultural Encyclopedia. by Margo DeMello is a fascinating read and must for all interested in feet and shoes.
It is an exhaustive A-Z cultural encyclopedia covering all aspects of the human foot. A wide range of international and multicul- tural topics are covered, including foot binding, fetishes, diseases of the foot, customs and beliefs related to the foot, shoe construction, myths and folktales featuring feet or shoes, the history of footwear, iconic brands and types of shoes, important celebrities associated with shoes, and the types of footwear worn around the world.

Dr Margo DEMello is an anthropologist/sociologist who teaches at Central New Mexico Community College has also written Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community.

The origins of the lyrics of Flat foot floogie, (with the floy floy)

Flossie was early 20th century slang for a disreputable woman or promiscuous girl, or a prostitute. It may have originated as a variation of flossy meaning "fancy, frilly" (1890s slang). ‘Floy floy’ was American slang for venereal disease. The song ‘Flat foot floozie (with the floy floy)‘ was written by Bulee "Slim" Gaillard, Slam Stewart and Bud Green. It was performed in 1938 by Slim Gaillard and became a major hit. Slim was a polyglot, rather eccentric and spoke “Vout” language. He was also fluent in gibberish and double-talk. Gaillard sang in vocalese which is unlike scat singing, i.e. improvised nonsense syllables. Vocalese uses lyrics, either improvised or set to pre-existing instrumental solos. The inventor and most prolific practitioner of vocalese was Eddie Jefferson, whose rendition of Coleman Hawkins's "Body and Soul" became a hit on its own. Annie Ross recorded “Twisted" (1952), which is now considered a classic of the genre. In his unique style Slim Gaillard combined vocalese improvisations with scat singing. This hip style had broad appeal to the merging jazz generation. Despite his obvious eccentricities he was very well respected by his peers. ‘Flat floozie (with the floy floy) ‘was recorded by many jazz and pop luminaries including: Louis Armstrong and The Mills Brothers (1938); Benny Goodman. Wingy Manone, Django Reinhardt, Count Basie, Fats Waller, and Michael Jackson. The original title had to be changed from "Flat foot floozie, (with the 'floy-floy)” into 'Flat foot floogie with the floy floy' to avoid censorship and allow airplay. A “Floogie” dance craze followed the success of the record and together the song and dance craze proved so popular and representative of American culture at the time, the sheet music was placed in a time capsule at the 1939 World’s Fair, not to be opened for 5,000 years. Many early jazz and rock’n roll hits contained lyrics which had previously been considered to vulgar for a white public consumption and all expletives and reference to sex and the seamier side of life were removed or vocalesed. In his private life Gaillard like other musicians of the time would in the normal course of events be exposed to the daily lives of sex workers and ordinary people coping with untreated sexually transmitted disease. Sadly their prognosis was poor and the symptoms of end stage syphilis, horrific. Tabes dorsalis occurs with untreated syphilis infection and is a slow degeneration of the sensory neurons in the spinal cord. These are responsible for proprioception, vibration, and discriminative touch. Most street walkers inevitably fell prey to syphilis tabes dorsalis only appearing many decades later. Symptoms included painful legs and paresthesias with formication and hypoesthesias. Locomotor ataxia with tabetic gait followed. Due the loss of propriception victims walked with a high stepping gaiting slapping their feet noisily on the floor. The flat footed sex-worker with venereal disease in the song accurately described tertiary syphilis. It was also a common misconception at the time, Tabes dorsalis was caused by sexual excess and anyone considered promiscuous was thought would end up flat footed. So the lyrics of the popular song were a warning to the unsuspected.

Sadly the incidence of tabes dorsalis today is increasing in part due to co-associated HIV infection.

Shoe Revolt

Ateba Crocker runs Shoe Revolt an on-line business which auctions lightly worn shoe donations to support the fight against human trafficking. Ateba was herself a victim of sexual abuse as a child and remains determined to help others. Through donation she has collected over 300 pairs of heels and sneakers and intends to present the shoes for sale on Dec. 11 at Parkside Business Center in Beaverton. The profits benefits organizations that provide safe shelter or counseling services for victims of sexual exploitation. Several of the donations are from stiletto-strutting fashion icons including Sarah Jessica Parker, but most are from friends or strangers who hear about the cause by word-of-mouth. Crocker eventually wants to have victims of sexual exploitation custom-design their own pair of high heels, using the sales to fund educational scholarships.

Put your foot down: ActionAid

More than 15 million women are living with HIV globally and every half minute another becomes infected. With 5 million South Africans living with HIV, the risk of infection for these young women is extremely high. And once infected, HIV positive women are accused of bringing HIV into their homes and face violence, eviction and economic destitution as a result. On World AIDS Day 2008, ActionAid decided to do something about this, with the launch of campaign. ActionAid asked people to help them persuade the UK government to take action on violence against women - by contributing a shoe. The intention was to have one shoe for every woman likely to contract HIV each day (2,876). They received over 3,200 shoes . Working with artists Riitta Ikonen and YCN, they created a piece of art using the donated shoes. The finished product was unveiled on International Women’s Day 2009 is an installation which uses customised shoes to tell the stories of women affected by violence and HIV and AIDS .

>Put your foot down


Riitta Ikonen from YCN TV on Vimeo.

Cosmetic foot surgey: The ultimate shoe accessory?

The rise in cosmetic foot surgery has seen expotential growth as more women want beautiful feet to match their wonderful shoes. Toe shortening and fat injections into the foot pad are among the most popular procedures in a new plastic surgery craze focused on feet. Procedures costing more than $3,000 US are commonly undertaken to surgically enhance ugly feet in an industry considered to be worth an estimated $45 million a year in the US alone. Podiatrist, Ali Sadrieh in Beverly Hills, Calif., performs the toe shortening procedure, which involves dislocating the digit before removing a chunk of bone and inserting a titanium rod to bring the shortened bone back together again. Soft tissue transplants to the heel are also routinely undertaken. Fat is liposucked from a patient's tummy and injecting it into the balls of the feet to give added cushioning as well as cover up biony feet caused by the aging process. The pinky toe tuck remain another popular procedure in which fat is taken out of the little toe to make it narrower. Like all surgery cosmetic foot surgery is not without potential problems which include permanent nerve damage, infection, scarring, a recurrence of the deformity that was supposedly fixed and chronic pain when wearing not just high heels, but all shoes. Many women are willing to accept the risks as the price of fashion.

Shoe Collectors Book: Warman’s ® Shoes Field Guide

The Warman’s ® Shoes Field Guide is a pocket- size shoe collector’s price guide with 400 hundred illustrations of interesting 20th and 21st century shoes. To the best of my knowledge this is the only book on collectible contemporary footwear with a current pricing. Ashleigh is an acknowledged antiques and collectables appraiser and writes authoritatively about the subject. The book also includes sections on historical footwear as well as celebrity shoewear with shoe-related quotes liberally sprinkled throughout. As with all published material the estimated values are subject to change so the book has little real value to the serious collector but to shoe book enthusiasts, it is invaluable.

Cane Toad Sneakers: Ted Noffs Foundation

The Reverend Ted Noffs established Sydney’s first 24 hour crisis centre in 1968, set up the first Drug Referral Centre in Sydney in 1967, co-founded the Aboriginal Affairs Foundation in 1962 and was the co-founder of Lifeline in 1963. The Ted Noffs Foundation was founded in 1970 and continues his legacy by providing essential services for young people and their families experiencing drug and alcohol problems and related trauma.The Sydney charity has set up a new sneaker footwear line featuring shoes made from the skin of cane toads to raise money for its Street University, Australia's largest drop-in centre. Disadvantaged youths who use the centre have designed an ethical line of sneakers made from the hides of cane toads , kangaroos and cows. The shoes will be sold on line and prices range from $165 to $450 a pair.

Bigfoot in Edinburgh

Kangaroo skin shoes

From 1790 convict shoemakers made large quantities of footwear. Inferior bovine hides meant alternative were sought and from 1805, Kangaroo leather was used as a cheap and convenient substitute for kid leather. It transpired kangaroo skin had superior qualities of high strength, light weight and durability which made it ideal for finer boots, whips, gloves and eventually sporting shoes. By the mid nineteenth century there were many small tanneries established as the demand for quality kangaroo products rose across the word. As today an estimated 80% of kangaroo skin products went abroad. The native marsupial developed a special skin which it to survive harshest environments and against many predators. Studies conducted by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) confirmed kangaroo was one of the strongest leathers of similar substance. When split into thinner substances kangaroo retains much of its original tensile strength i.e. when split to 20% of original thickness kangaroo retains between 30 to 60% of the tensile strength of the unsplit hide. As a hide it is lighter and stronger than the hide of a cow (bovine) or goat. It has 10 times the tensile strength of cowhide and is 50% stronger than goatskin. Microscopically kangaroo presents with uniform orientation of collagen fibre bundles in parallel with the skin surface. By comparison cattle has complex weaving patterns with fibre bundles angled as much as 90 degrees to the skin surface. In kangaroo skin the low angle of weave running parallel to the surface of the skin acts like a rope gives the material exceptional strength. Because there is no fat within kangaroo hide the tanning process does not leave “voids” which can cause a reduction in strength per unit thickness. The hide also does not contain sweat glands or erector pili muscles and elastin is evenly distributed throughout the skin thickness. This structural uniformity explains both the high tensile strength of the whole leather and the greater retention of strength in splits. By comparison bovine skin is much more complex in cross section. Hence it has many more weak points from which tears can start when placed under tension. In addition when sliced into splits the collagen fibres running at significant angles to the skin surface are cut which further weakens structural strength. In Australia, kangaroos have never been farmed and hides are produced from free ranging wild animals. Today most species of macropods are protected from hunting by law. Most of the leather used today is a by-product of beef industry. Fifty (50) % is used to produce shoes, 25% to make clothing, 15% for upholstery and the rest is used to produce accessories.