#4 My Boots - Not so ordinary ordinary challenge

Last month Hive account@rubencress started a 30 day challenge about ordinary everyday objects we use and what it means to us. Needless to say, I never managed to complete the 30 day challenge, in fact I only did 3 posts. I still see a couple of people doing this challenge now, and thought "why not?".

So here goes #4 My Boots - Not so ordinary ordinary challenge

Many years ago in my younger youth days, I went through a phase of wearing Dr Martens. They were trendy and cool, made popular by the British punk culture from the 60s. Their iconic yellow stitching and thick clear plastic soles made them instantly recognisable. Then I moved onto the next stage of my life, stilettos for work and convenient trainers (sneakers) for the weekend. A few months ago the soles of my regular Converse started to crack and I needed a pair of new shoes.

I remembered my DMs and that they have never gone out of fashion all these years. I went into my local DM store, tried on a few pairs and they were just as stylish as before. The only thing was the price for the quality. Previously DMs were all made in UK, that's always a quality standard. Then like most manufacturing, they shipped production off to low cost countries China mainly, and also south east Asia Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. And they still cost around £160/USD200 a pair. There were still some DMs some Made in UK but they were even more expensive.

Then I did some research and found out that the British made DMs were actually made by a firm called Solovair before production was shipped off shore. Solovair had been making shoes since 1881, and DMs since 1950s.

Solovair boot styles are similar to DMs, but they use green instead of yellow. And like DM, the 8 eyelet boots are one of the most popular styles. The best thing was that they were priced around the same price as DMs but were Made in England!!!!

You probably figured out by now I got myself pair of Solovair. Buying shoes online is really tricky as shoes need to fit perfectly, at least I want mine to be if I'm paying £170 for them! When my boots arrived, they were quite uncomfortable as the leather needed to break in, especially the sides, they kept in digging into my calf. I was expecting that and figured if it was really unbearable, I could always send them back for a refund.

Luckily they only took a couple of weeks to break in and now they are mega comfortable. I love wearing them, plus they are soooo stylish. Made in England products rarely disappoints, we just need more of them.

By the way, I was trying to find a suitable community to post this, and couldn't find a shoe or footwear community👠🥿🥾🩴. There was a Feet Community🦶!!