Clog (shoe)

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This article is about types of footwear. For other uses, see clog.

The word clog, as applied to footwear, has these meanings:-

1. A type of shoe or sandal made predominantly out of wood.
2. A type of boot or shoe with leather sides and uppers and wooden soles. They may have steel toecaps and/or steel reinforcing inserts in the undersides of the soles.
3. A special kind of shoe worn while clog-dancing (clogging). They are similar to tap shoes, but the taps are free to click against each other, therefore producing a different sound than tap shoes.
4. Nowadays, "clogs" also means comfortable slip-on shoes. They are often made out of leather, but some clogs keep the bottom part out of wood. All-rubber clogs are often worn while gardening, because they can be easily hosed off and allowed to air-dry. Some clogs come with heels, and are usually distinguished from mules by their higher vamp. It is commonly accepted that men and women can wear low-heeled or high-heeled clogs.

Clogs (with meaning 1 or 2) were, and in some regions still are, widely worn by workers as protective clothing in factories, mines and farms.

The French name for a wooden shoe is sabot, which is the source of the word sabotage, reportedly describing how disgruntled workers damaged workplace machines in France by tossing their shoes into the mechanisms. However, according to some accounts, sabot-clad workers were simply considered less productive than others who had switched to leather shoes, roughly equating early use of the term sabotage with inefficiency.^[1]

Traditional clogs were made out of willow or poplar wood and are associated with the Netherlands and Sweden as part of the touristic "Holland"/Swedish image, where they are seen as a form of national dress. Because of this, Dutch people are sometimes called cloggies, that is, clog-wearers. In Dutch, clogs are known as klompen. The traditional, all wooden, Dutch clogs have been officially labelled as safety shoes, passing European standards for the CE mark with flying colours. Today, Dutch clogs are available in many tourist shops. Wearing clogs is considered to be healthy for the feet.

In England, clogs were traditionally made of alder and were commonly worn by all classes throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. The Lancashire cotton mill workers habitually wore clogs because of the wet floors maintained in the cotton mills. There is a theory that clogging or clog dancing arose in these mills as a result of the mill workers entertaining themselves by syncopating foot taps with the rhythmic sounds made by the loom shuttles. Clog dancing became a widespread pastime during this period in England. During the nineteenth century, competitions were held and there were professional clog dancers who performed in the music halls. One such professional dancer was John Carr of Newcastle under Lyme, who appears in the English census of 1871 and proudly proclaims his employment as "Professional Clog Dancer".

Clogs are traditional also in Northern Italy and Southern Switzerland, where they are often part of the traditional local costumes.

Pattens are an overshoe variant of sandals or clogs meant to protect other footwear by either covering or elevating it above the street.

Swedish clogs became popular in the seventies and eighties for both sexes. They were considered to be worn by both men and women. They were usually worn without socks which exuded a hotlook.

Contents 1 Images 2 External links 3 Notes 4 References

[edit] Images

Plain willow-wood clogs, in use every day	Traditional clogs	Clog sandal	Modern 'Swedish' clog
Medieval pattens or overshoes worn under the shoe to keep it clean and dry when outside, c. 1465	Clog boot	Clog sandal	Wedding clogs
Worlds largest clog in Enter, The Netherlands	Cat in painted clogs in Amsterdam

[edit] External links

• Clog making in Lithuania
• Facts about Clogs
• The History of Clogs by Cameron Kippen
• Clogging Shoes

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Shoes and Pattens : Finds from Medieval Excavations in London ISBN 0-85115-838-2
• Stepping through Time, Archeological Footwear from Prehistoric Times until 1800, ISBN 90-801044-6-9