Creepers or brothel creepers are a type of shoe.
They found their beginnings in the years following World War II, as soldiers based in the deserts in North Africa wore suede boots with hardwearing crepe soles because of the climate and environment. Having left the army, many of these ex-soldiers found their way to the nightspots of London wearing the same crepe-soled shoes and these became known as "brothel creepers".
In the late 1950s, these shoes were taken up by the Teddy Boys along with drainpipe trousers, draped jackets, bolo ties, quiff and pompadour haircuts, and velvet or electric blue clothes. This style of shoe was developed in 1949 by George Cox and marketed under the "Hamilton" name, based on George Cox Jr.'s middle name.[1]
The brothel creeper regained popularity in the early 1970s when Malcolm McLaren sold them from his "Let it Rock" shop in London's Kings Road. Teddy Boys were the obvious customers, but the brothel creeper still proved to be popular among regular customers[2] when McLaren and his partner Vivienne Westwood changed the shop to more rocker-oriented fashion.
The shoe has since been adopted by subcultures such as ska, punk, new wavers, psychobilly, greasers and goth, Japanese Visual Kei, and was noted as the footwear of choice of Bananarama.
The original George Cox creepers are hard to find, but British Boot Company has a large selection and is now the main agent in the United Kingdom for George Cox.[3]
Underground England Shoes have been producing creepers since the 1980s, creating new designs along the way. In 2003 Osiris Shoes produced the Ali Boulala, a brothel creeper-influenced skateboarding shoe.
In Norway, they are called "Traktorsko", literally "Tractor shoes", perhaps a parallel due to the thick sole being like the tall profile of a tractor wheel, but also because wearers of the Rocker/Teddy boy-style tended to be youth from rural areas.
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