For this process post, I arranged my shoes in the order of most comfortable casual wear to least comfortable and more ‘stylish’/’fashionable’ wear. Visually, one would notice right away that all my shoes are black and not terribly exciting in terms of variation. When I look at them all together, I notice that the style of all the shoes are of an alternative style and are all similar to each other with not much distinction other than a few minimal changes such as the size of the heel or extra accessorizing. By their curation, I could also see that most of my shoes are based around style and appearance. They tell me that I care a lot about how I present myself to the world, and how I am selective towards style and possibly the ‘counter-culture’ that surrounds each brand of shoes. On a general basis, it tells me about consumer culture and how we choose to identify with an apparel item such as our shoes and how much value we often put on the appearance of them, rather than their functionality, durability or comfort. For example, I have two pairs of heels that are in no way comfortable, especially if walked in for a long time, but they look amazing – which is indicative of the image I choose to base my appearance on. They represent me because of the statement they make, and how they also reflect the fashion style that I’m interested in. All of my shoes follow a similar design structure and are all what people would consider stylish and ‘alternative’ brands (ex. Birkenstock, Doc Martens, T.U.K. Creepers, etc, which are all European brands).
Doc Martens were created by Klaus Märtens, a doctor in the German Army during WWII. While on leave in 1945, he injured his ankle while skiing in the Bavarian Alps, and redesigned his standard army boots to help his recovery. He improved them using soft leather and air-padded soles made of tyres. When the war ended and some Germans recovered valuables from their own cities, Märtens took leather from a cobbler’s shop, using it to make his own pair of boots. The boots were initially popular among workers such as postmen, police officers and factory workers. By the early 1970s, skinheads started wearing them, and by the late 1980s, they were popular among punks, some new waves musicians, and members of other youth subcultures. The boots and shoes became popular in the 1990s as grunge fashion arose.
Brothel creeper shoes were first developed as a fashion item following World War II. They have been popular on and off with various subcultures ever since. Soldiers based in North African deserts wore suede boots with crepe rubber soles that were suitable for the climate and environment. Post-war, they wore these same shoes back to nightspots in London, where the shoes became known as ‘brother creepers.’ The shoe has since been adopted by subcultures such as indie, ska, punk, new wavers, greasers, goths, and Japanese Visual Kei. And due to the resurgence in popularity of grunge culture, creepers became much more mainstream in 2011 with popular artists such as R&B singers and now even in pop culture.
Birkenstock Orthopädie GmbH & Co. KG is a shoe manufacturer headquartered Vettelschoß, Germany. The company sells Birkenstock, a German brand of sandals and other shoes notable for their contoured cork and rubber footbeds, which conform somewhat to the shape of their wearers’ feet. The brand was created by Adam Birkenstock, who was registered in 1774 as a “subject and shoemaker” in local church archives. Since the 1980s, Birkenstock footwear has become popular among medical professionals (doctors, nurses, etc) who work on their feet. In Germany people most often use the sandals as house slippers, but in the United States they have become a part of everyday clothing for people from professionals to blue-collar workers and the entertainment industry. Birkenstock offers several avant-garde styles of thong sandal that have recently enjoyed tremendous popularity among celebrity women and men. In the United States, Birkenstock first became popular among young men and later on among “flower children”, a group traditionally associated with “American liberalism.” in the early 1990s “Birk” enjoyed a surge of popularity among high-school and college-aged Generation X-ers comparable to the 2000s popularity of flip flops.
Knowing all of this background history on the shoes I buy, it helps me see a connection in the certain time periods and youth subcultures that brought these shoes into mainstream attention in the U.S. I love the style of the punk scene when it originated in the U.K. – where many of my pairs derived from. That association helps me form an intimate connection with my shoes, seeing as I can identify with some of the politics and other variables of those subcultures and how the history, music and style still influence me today.
