Figure 1.--Here are sandls offered by Harrison. I'm not sure when they were made. This is a 7½ senior sandl which would have been more for adylts than children. |
|
We do not have much unformation on brands and companies that mde shool sandals at this time. Many of our English readers remember the Clark's schools sandals they wore as children. Several British readers when describing theit sandals, specifically mentioned Clark's. They mention this company more than any other company. There were other companies. One such compny is Harrison.
The most common brand was Clark's school sandals. British contributor remembers Clark's shoes during the 1970s. They made a boys sandal called the 'Wayfinder'. An English contributor recalls, "I owned a pair of these and was very happy to have them, because, in the heel they had a compass and the soles were embossed with animal footprints (easy to retrace your footsteps in the snow." Another popular style throughout during the 1960s was the Kiltie Alex sandal, which was made with dark tan leather and given an aged effect. The pattern cut into the sandal consisted of a small round hole, then an inch-or-so wide, very narrow slit, then another small round hole. This pattern was repeated another two times, one under the other. Another very common style was called the Wonder sandal, which was a lighter brown in colour with a 'daisy' pattern. A British reader writes, "The sandals worn by many prep boys look to be much more expensive then the standard Clarke's ones worn by children in state primary schools. They look to have a proper leather sole whereas Clarkes had crepe soles. I wore Clarke's school sandals and they had these crepe soles. (You can see that best in the pictures during my German trip.) As I have said - my main reason for liking wearing my sandals was that the spongy crepe soles made them extremely comfortable to wear - especially in Summer. I really noticed the difference when the German boy's Mother made me wear my shoes to visit the mayor (an indication that German mothers also did not see sandals as "best" wear?). I also mentioned that the German boy's sandals had wooden soles - no good for sneaking up on someone as they were noisy! I don't think I'd have liked the prep school sandals s much as my Clarkes - and I never saw anybody round my way wearing anything but the standard Clarkes. Boys just had their own favourite type of pattern cut into the fronts - otherwise they were the same."
Harrison appears to be an English shoe company. We know that they made school sandals, although our English readers have not mentoned them as commonly as Clark's. An English reader noted vintage Harrison's school sandals for sale in England. He tells us, "As for the shoes being made in Australia, I'm not sure on this. I have not seen sandals like this for a long time in Aussie. Having said that, we do have Harrisons shoes in Australia, but they may be imported. The site that I found the pictures was from the UK. He was asking 80
pounds (Aus$183.00) for them. They are a size 7 1/2 senior."
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Sandal Pages:
[Return to the Main English school sandal page]
[Return to the Main English footware page]
[France]
[Ireland]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossary]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
