THE DECLINE OF THE BOOT

Evening Star, Issue 20363, 20 December 1929, Page 13

THE DECLINE OF THE BOOT

SHOES THE ONLY WEAR RUBBER AN INVADER. One of the things to be learned from a lour or the Shoo and Leather Fair in Islington is the decline of the boot (says a London paper). Boots are hardly now made for women at all, and for men they are- being ousted by the shoe. Some experts think that the time will come when boots will bo a memory, except, perhaps, as the wear of mountaineers, Arctic explorers, and navvies. As to fashions, the stubborn conservatism of men in clothing is illustrated by the clinging to the two dull colours of black and brown, especially the latter. An unwary observer might conclude from a radiant display of men’s shoes in gilt and amazing jazzy colours that we are in for brighter shoes at last. These efforts, one learns with some relief, are for export to the west coast of Africa for the delight of the more fashionable blacks. All the same, one sees no good reason for the monotony of black and browu. One maker shows a shoe of a pleasing dark blue which might well come into use. The particoloured shoe, in appearance a marriage of the tennis and the walking shoe, such as one sees in London on the feet of the more adventurous tourists, is still unknown here. The only real play of fancy permitted is in women’s evening shoes, in which almost any material and hold decorative effect is accepted—brocades, tinsels, silks and satin, and the skins of strange reptiles and fishes. For some relief from dullness ih street shoes one must turn to the uses of rubber. The extent to which rubber is invading the realm of leather is an interesting point in trade politics. The Russian boot is dead, but' the idea lives on in the rubber Wellingtons, which are made in gay tints and amusing shapes designed to cheer the eye on a wet day in town. BRITISH SHOES LEAD. Turning to sordid trade affairs, one hears with patriotic pleasure that British shoes still walk ahead of the rest of the world. Twenty years or so ago there was a dangerous influx of American shoes, which put the industry on its mettle. Nowadays we send men’s shoes to America. Our export is now three times as much in value as our imports, and, ’while certain kinds of cheap wares come in from Czecho-Slo-vakia and certain high-class kinds from Belgium and Switzerland, one gathers that there is no real demand for protection in the extreme form advocated by simple economists, who think that if ail imports could be excluded all would be well. The tendency at present is for imports to fall and exports to rise still farther. Some experts think that this tendency may have been helped by the marking order which came into* forco at the beginning of the year, under which foreign boots and shoes have to be stamped as such, although there has been a general falling off in the buying of new boots in that period. The trade is now considering supplementing this “negative” recognition of the excellence of the British product by a “positive ” recognition by stamping the latter with the information that it _ has been made in this country by British labour under fair conditions. The state of employment in the industry is fairly good compared with the plight o some other big industries. The leather trade is recovering from the slump in “sole” prices early in the year, and at present leather prices are rising; but one cannot jump from this to the conclusion that our shoes will cost us more. Some trade is being done with onoo a great supplier of hides, and it is hoped that when we get more sensible trade relations restored the import of raw material from this source will increase.