FOOTWEAR FOR CHILDREN

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28234, 23 March 1957, Page 12

FOOTWEAR FOR CHILDREN

Standardisation Of Lasts

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 22. It is expected that the Standards Institute will soon be in a position to issue a specification as a basis for the manufacture of standard lasts for children’s footwear. From the interest displayed by manufacturers and retailers, the institute predicts that its standard will be widely adopted throughout the country. Trial fittings of footwear made A to standard measurements will be conducted shortly through a Wellington retail store. It is understood that representatives of the Health Department will be present as observers and that they will prepare a report to be submitted to the institute’s footwear survey advisory committee, which is supervising the survey. The committee includes members of the medical profession, representatives of footwear and last manufacturers, and officers of the Departments of Health, Statistics and Scientific and Industrial Research.

Standard specifications are not being introduced without a comprehensive study and survey. Since 1946. under the supervision of the committee, the feet of some five thousand children between the ages of 3 and 15 have been examined. Correct Fitting The purpose of the survey is to provide lasts conforming to the basic foot measurements of New Zealand children and to attempt to provide more correct fitting footwear, thus benefiting the industry and the public. In 1948, 11 feet measurement! were taken on 2341 boys and 1966 girls throughout the Dominion. The basic foot measurements of New Zealand children were derived from the statistical analysis of those measurements. Check fitting tests were carried out on 80 children from Wellington schools. With shoes made on lasts conforming to the basic measurements of those children, 73, or 91.25 per cent., were satisfactorily fitted. The institute hopes soon to conduct in the footwear trade what it hopes will be the final fitting test, thus completing the survey and paving the way for the introduction of standard lasts.