Desert Boots exemplified the relaxed fashion of the 70’s & they were the perfect footwear to compliment our flared jeans & cheesecloth tops! When new, they looked quite smart, but as they got worn in, rained on & beautifully comfortable, they didn’t age well.
Smart, new desert boots
They very soon lost their shape & colour & fast became an eye sore to our parents, but not to us! The older & shabbier they were, the more comfortable they became & fitted your foot like an old pair of jeans!
My High School allowed us to wear these with our winter school uniforms. Cord trousers, skivvies, V Neck School Jumpers & Desert boots were very cool! I don’t think they were ever officially part of the school uniform, but every kid wore them and the school seemed powerless to make us wear the dreaded black leather school shoe, so I think they probably just gave in & put up with it. I do remember some teachers wearing them also, so I guess that helped our case!
I have absolutely no idea how I came across this website but here I am…
The “original” crepe soled Desert Boots were made by Clarks in England. My Dad was warehouse manager at the Clarks Canada HQ just outside of Toronto and had me working there during Summer vacations in the seventies. To a dumb fifteen year old Clarks didn’t exactly make the coolest footwear, mostly men’s and women’s dress shoes, and my shoes were just running shoes.
There was a mailroom in the warehouse where stores would return defective shoes for replacing. Many times the stores sent back shoes that had cracked soles, slightly scuffed uppers and (I kid you not) broken shoelaces. If the returned “defects” were of the broken shoelace variety, the mailroom guys put them aside for us warehouse guys to pick over and take for free.
Of course what self respecting teenager wanted old people shoes like Desert Boots, Wallabees or Treks (the leather shoes with the seam running up the upper centre as Buddy68 remembers)?
Many, many years later when I found myself in that old people demographic I discovered Dad had a spare pair of unworn suede Desert Boots in his closet. I snatched them and wore them out over five years. When I decided to investigate buying a replacement pair I was shocked to learn they were over a hundred and fifty dollars Canadian!
To think I could’ve had a closet full of them myself for free!
I had to laugh when I first saw The Verve video for “Bittersweet Symphony” and there’s the singer walking down the street, and into other pedestrians, wearing a pair of Wallabees. The choice footwear for slacker shoegazers apparently.
Don’t forget ripple soled desert boots .. in black .. the desert boots here had to have the very flakey sole .. the hard sole and you were a loser!
We used to call them ‘DBs’ and you wore them with your Californian Levis to school.
We used to wear “Rollers” which were hight top. It was essential to write boyfriends name and favourite bands on them in nasty black texta and dress them up with wild laces. You weren’t cool back then if you had the old “pasties” desert boots with the seam line up the centre front……..sad. Looooovved my Rollers 🙂