Boys' Strap Shoes: Closures


Figure 1.--These are a pair of child's shoes from an 2002 estate sale of a 98-year old lady. Thet may have weel been worn by her as a little girl and at the time little boys could wear identical shoes. They have 6 D and the number 78268 inside. There is a strap that goes around the ankle that has a button to close it. They have a bow on the front. The white that was on the sole around the edge is worn off in spots. There are brown spots on the inside sole. It looks like the sole on the outside was white but it is worn off on the parts that were walked on. They are off white now. They are a cloth shoe, feels like canvas. An HBC reader calls these "halo" strap shoes. Click on the image for another view.

Early strap shoes had button closures. Buttons were in fact used until realtively recently. The strap shoes worn by children as late as the 1940s still had button closures. Some expensive shoes for rich children still do. Almost all strap shoes now have small buckle closures. The closures were placed at different locations on the shoe depending on the design of the shoe. Presumably buttons and buckels were used on shoe styles for small children because they were easy for small children to handle and the child did not have to know how to tie his shoe laces--a difficult undertaking for younger children.








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Created: January 30, 2002
Last updated: January 30, 2002