The Wellington boot, also known as rubber-boots, wellies, wellingtons, topboots, billy-boots, gumboots, gummies, barnboots, wellieboots, muckboots, sheepboots, shitkickers, or rainboots are a type of boot based upon leather Hessian boots. They were worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. This novel "Wellington" boot then became a fashionable style emulated by the British aristocracy in the early 19th century.
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Wellington boots are waterproof and are most often made from rubber or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) a halogenated polymer. They are usually worn when walking on wet or muddy ground, or to protect the wearer from heavy showers and puddles. They are generally just below knee-high although shorter boots are available.
The "Wellington" in contemporary society is a very common and necessary safety or hygiene shoe for vastly diverse industrial settings: for heavy industry with an integrated reinforced toe; protection from mud and grime in mines, chemical spills in chemical plants to highest standard hygiene requirements from food processing plants, operating theatres state-of-the-art, dust-free clean rooms for electronics manufacture and Gardening/Horticulture Work - wet,mud and soil protection
The Duke of Wellington instructed his shoemaker, Hoby of St. James's Street, London, to modify the 18th-century Hessian boot. The resulting new boot was fabricated in soft calfskin leather, had the trim removed and was cut to fit more closely around the leg. The heels were low cut, stacked around an inch (2.5 centimetres), and the boot stopped at mid-calf. It was suitably hard-wearing for battle, yet comfortable for the evening. The boot was dubbed the Wellington and the name has stuck in British English language ever since. The Duke can be seen wearing his namesake boots, which are tasseled, in an 1815 portrait by James Lonsdale.[2]
It should be mentioned here that in his biography, it is reported that Wellington noted that many cavalry soldiers sustained crippling wounds by having been shot in the knee — a very vulnerable and exposed part of the body when one is mounted on a horse. He proposed a change in the design of the typical boot by having it cut so as to extend the front upward to cover the knee. This modification afforded some measure of protection in battle.
Wellington's dashing new boots quickly caught on with patriotic British gentlemen eager to emulate their war hero. Considered fashionable and foppish in the best circles and worn by dandies, such as Beau Brummell, they remained the main fashion for men through the 1840s. In the 1850s they were more commonly made in the calf-high version, and in the 1860s they were both superseded by the ankle boot, except for riding. Wellington is one of only two British Prime Ministers to have given his name to an item of clothing, the other being Anthony Eden (his distinctive Homburg).[3]
Wellington boots were at first made of leather. However in 1852 Hiram Hutchinson met Charles Goodyear, who had just invented the vulcanization process for natural rubber. While Goodyear decided to manufacture tyres, Hutchinson bought the patent to manufacture footwear and moved to France to establish "A l'Aigle" ("To the Eagle") in 1853, to honour his home country. The company today is simply called "AIGLE", "Eagle"). In a country where 95% of the population were working on fields with wooden clogs as they had been for generations, the introduction of the wholly water-proof Wellington-type rubber boot became an instant success: farmers would be able to come back home with clean, dry feet.
Production of the Wellington boot was dramatically boosted with the advent of World War I and a requirement for footwear suitable for the conditions in Europe's flooded trenches. The North British Rubber Company (now Hunter Boot Ltd) was asked by the War Office to construct a boot suitable for such conditions. The mills ran day and night to produce immense quantities of these trench boots. In total, 1,185,036 pairs were made to meet the British Army's demands.
In World War II, Hunter Boot was again requested to supply vast quantities of Wellington and thigh boots. 80% of production was of war materials - from (rubber) ground sheets to life belts and gas masks. In the Netherlands, the British forces were working in flooded conditions which demanded Wellingtons and thigh boots in vast supplies.
By the end of the war in 1945, the Wellington had become popular among men, women and children for wet weather wear. The boot had developed to become far roomier with a thick sole and rounded toe. Also, with the rationing of that time, labourers began to use them for daily work.
The lower cost and ease of rubber "Wellington" boot manufacture, and being entirely water-proof, lent itself immediately to being the preferred protective shoe to leather in all forms of industry. Increased attention to occupational health and safety requirements led to the steel toe or steel-capped Wellington: a protective (commonly internal) toe capping to protect the foot from crush and puncture injuries. Although traditionally made of steel, the reinforcement may be a composite or a plastic material such as ThermoPlastic Polyurethane (TPU).
Such steel-toe Wellingtons are nearly indispensable in an enormous range of industry and are often mandatory wear to meet local occupational health and safety legislation or insurance requirements.
Green Wellington boots, introduced by Hunters in 1955[4], gradually became a shorthand for "country life" and have been popularly thought to be typical not only of "country folk" but also of people who are really townees but wear "green wellies" because they want to be thought to be "country folk", in the same way that they own Range Rovers or other 4x4 vehicles which are never driven off road.
Though most commonly called "gum boots" or "gummies", an alternative name, "Blucher Boot", is occasionally used by some older Australians. Blücher was Wellington's colleague at The Battle of Waterloo and there is speculation that some early emigrants to Australia, remembering the battle, may have preserved an earlier term for the boots that has died out elsewhere. The Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote a poem to a pair of Blucher Boots in 1890.[5]
Wellington boots, almost always simply called rain boots, rubber boots, billy boots, or gum-boots, are popular in Canada and the northern United States, particularly in springtime when melting snows leave wet and muddy ground. Young people can be seen wearing them to school or university and taking them to summer camps.
While green Wellingtons are popular in Britain, red-soled black rubber boots are often seen in the United States, in addition to Canadian styles. In rural and coastal Alaska, XtraTuf boots are popular. Wellingtons specifically made for cold weather, lined with warm insulating material, are especially popular practical footwear for Canadian winters. This same style of lined boot is also popular among those who work in or near the ocean, as one can wade in and out of shallow, but cold ocean water, while staying dry and warm.
In the U.S. white mid-calf rubber boots are worn by workers on shrimp boats and construction workers pouring concrete.
Leather boots similar to Wellington's original Hessian boots have been marketed in North America as "Ranch Wellingtons" or "Western Wellingtons". These boots have more rounded toes, lower heels, and less radically scalloped tops than typical "cowboy boots".
In some parts of Ireland one can hear older people refer to their Wellington boots as "topboots", usually black in colour, as this was a popular name for Wellingtons in the 1960s. In general, Irish people will refer to Wellington Boots as "Wellies". "Waterboots" is sometimes heard too.
In New Zealand, Wellingtons are called "gumboots" and considered essential foot wear for farmers. Gumboots are often referred to in New Zealand popular culture such as the rurally-based Footrot Flats comic strip. The farming town of Taihape in the North Island proclaims itself "Gumboot capital of the World" and has annual competitions and events such as Gumboot Day, where gumboots are thrown. Most gumboots are black, but those worn by abattoir workers, butchers, fishermen and by hospital operating theatre staff and surgeons are white, and children's sizes come in multiple colours.
The term "gum boot" in New Zealand is thought to derive from the 19th-century kauri-gum diggers, who wore this footwear, or perhaps because the boots were made from gum rubber. The term is often abbreviated to "gummies". New Zealand comedy character Fred Dagg paid tribute to this iconic footwear in his song "Gumboots".
The boots are very popular in Scandinavian countries, with conditions and climate similar to Canada. In fact, before its entry into the mobile phone business, rubber boots were among the best-known products of Nokia.[6][7][8]
In Russia rubber boots were first introduced in the 1920s. Immediately, they became extremely popular because of Russian weather conditions. During the rule of Joseph Stalin, 17 rubber-boot factories were built in different parts of the Soviet Union. Along with valenki in winter, rubber boots became the traditional footwear in springs and autumns.
When Nikita Khrushchev came to power, the boot became charged politically in the context of the "Battle for Modesty" campaign, where rubber footwear was proclaimed as "socialism style" (thus fashionable), while leather, which was obviously more expensive, was derided as "capitalism style" (thus unfashionable). During the period 1961–1964 leather footwear disappeared from Soviet shops. When Leonid Brezhnev came to power in 1964, the usual leather footwear returned to shops, and rubber boots quickly lost their popularity, returning to their original role of utility footwear.
In South Africa, the sound of people dancing in gumboots has been incorporated into a form of semi-traditional popular music, often known as "gumboot music" or "gumboot zydeco" in Africa or Welly boot dance by people from Britain. The dance began as a form of communication in the late 19th century in the gold mines of South Africa. The miners having been forbidden to speak with each other while they worked, were stripped of the right to wear their tribal garments. This is where these men adopted a system of communication using their work attire and native tribal rhythms. This miner uniform included Wellington boots, hard hats, and chains; so these men utilized the instruments they were given within this uniform to develop a new language for communication, safety, and simply as a form of entertainment. Oftentimes there were songs or chants accompanying these gumboot dances, the men would sing songs that included such content as themes of longing or loneliness, oftentimes they would make fun of their bosses in the songs. The men who owned these mines began to be impressed with this new phenomenon, and at times would allow the best gumboot dancers to form troupes and perform. These dances, uniform, and these rhythms have lived on from the gold mines in South Africa in step dance a contemporary form of dance heavily influenced by gumboot dancing, as well as many other forms of music and dance that use the body to create the arrangement of rhythms. Traditional gumboot dances, as well as contemporary versions of this dance can be seen throughout Africa and the United States, though at times in South Africa the gumboot dancing has become more of a tourist attraction rather than a celebration of liberation under oppression. The 1986 Paul Simon album Graceland contains the song "Gumboots", this song, like much of the album was recorded in South Africa.
In 1974, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly adopted a comical ode to the boot called "The Welly Boot Song" as his theme tune and it became one of his best-known songs. In 1976, satirist John Clarke's alter ego Fred Dagg reworked Connolly's song as "If it weren't for your Gumboots", and created a hit. Wellies have also been used by the band, Gaelic Storm, in their fifth full album "Bring Yer Wellies", and in the song "Kelly's Wellies" on the same album.
Between 1994 and 1996, the UK's BBC1 created several series of William's Wish Wellingtons, about a boy named William whose magical red Wellington Boots could grant him wishes.
Danish band Alphabeat's 2007 album contains a song called "Rubber Boots/Mackintosh". The song says "You should wear rubber, always wear rubber" and it is believed to be a metaphor for the use of condoms.[9]
In the song "Springtime", Spinal Tap tires of spring, and they want drizzle, sleet, and "Wellies on my feet".
In Britain, there is a light-hearted sport, known as wellie wanging, which involves throwing Wellington boots as far as possible.
Some individuals find wearing Wellington boots to be erotic. See boot fetishism.
As stated above, the all-rubber (or plastic, composite, etc.) waterproof construction, especially when mated to a steel toe was an enormous and widely adopted footwear for all manner of industry. An exhaustive list is beyond the scope of the article, but a short list would include:
White boots, one-piece construction, commonly of PVC or a similar plastic are worn in
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Rubber_boots Rubber boots] at Wikimedia Commons
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