Ventilated Shoes.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 11, 6 October 1937, Page 14

Ventilated Shoes.

One of the most useful inventions o£ the1- day is the ventilated shoe — that is, the ordinary light shoe punctured with many holes. Its disadvantage is that it cannot be worn in wet weather, but even so it is a boon at a time of year when feet are apt to give the greatest amount of trouble. Some of the troubles of shoes are largely the result of this lack of ventilation. Various suhstances have not the ventilation possibilities of many leathers, and substitutes and reptile skins in particular are often airless. Puncturing of these makes them wearable, and a cheap form of shoe has been evolved which, owing to this puncturing, is as comfortable as the more expensive kind. The question of ventilation might well be pursued where wet-weather shoes are required. Some of it might be met by puncturing the tops of shoes with holes small enough to keep out rain, but large enough to let in air. There mu.st also be some substance invented or inventable, like the windproof cloth, which ventilates but does not leak. In the desire for smartness, shoes are much stiffened nowadays, and the stiffening itself, while it achieves the desired result, sometimes makes for lack of ventilation. Once people have worn the ventilated shoe they will be unwilling to do with less aeration in the case of the others.