Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2017 22:02:39 GMT -5
The whole story begins with toy collecting.
I find the history and development of toys to be endlessly fascinating because it's a strange, but neato mirror of society. I especially adore vintage toys, mainly for this reason. (It's a weird thing that few people enjoy. That's kind of my niche.)
Yes, this has to do with the shoe mittens in the thread title. Just hold on.
Some places will have every few months or so what is in essence a flea market, but with only toys. I find them pretty damn awesome because of the weird and wonderful stuff you can find.
This is where things get interesting.
I manage to snag an old Steiff doll (pretty, but pricey stuffed toys) to add to my Bizarre Collection of Vintage Toys and look around aimlessly, finding an old suitcase-like box roughly the size of half a shoebox. It's obviously rather old and a little worn out. The people there tell me that this is the most bizarre thing they've ever seen in a while, and given my natural draw to the bizarre, I ask them what's in it. They open the box, and I see...
Shoe mittens.
And these aren't just the typical little cloths you shine shoes with.
Apparently some people running out of ideas back in the thirties or so thought it would be a great idea to make these little knit coverings for shoes, saying it makes them easier to travel with. (And apparently they're some kind odd...fashion...thing, as I'll talk about later.) Obviously, you can see several problems with this: What else would you do with it? How does it help you in travel if it just takes up space and is pretty useless? You're not even supposed to use it to shine shoes anyway, unlike the somewhat useful modern-day shoe mitt! Why is it in its own box and rather tight-fitting for a shoe? (There's even a little card with them made by their maker that explains the purpose of these weirdo things. I'm not entirely sure in my decisions, but when you have to justify your product like that, your idea is going nowhere.) Shoe Mittens even apparently came in different colors- there was a blue pair, a green pair, and a pink pair in the box, but I'm guessing there were more at some point.
The accompanying illustration also promotes just wearing Shoe Mittens out in the open, as a stereotypical nuclear family of four goes around wearing these things looking like total dorks (at least they looked as if they were enjoying themselves.) These people never told me where they got the shoe mittens from, but I wasn't going to ask them- I was too bewildered by the simple idea of these. MITTENS FOR YOUR SHOES! WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A COMPLETELY NORMAL IDEA BACK AT WHATEVER COMPANY MADE THIS!?!
I have never seen a pair of shoe mittens before or since. Not have I learned any more history on them than what I was given. These still make me wonder to this day- I'm not sure if I'm more perplexed about their existence or the fact someone might have actually used them.
But I would be all for learning more about these things. It wouldn't be a boring story.
I find the history and development of toys to be endlessly fascinating because it's a strange, but neato mirror of society. I especially adore vintage toys, mainly for this reason. (It's a weird thing that few people enjoy. That's kind of my niche.)
Yes, this has to do with the shoe mittens in the thread title. Just hold on.
Some places will have every few months or so what is in essence a flea market, but with only toys. I find them pretty damn awesome because of the weird and wonderful stuff you can find.
This is where things get interesting.
I manage to snag an old Steiff doll (pretty, but pricey stuffed toys) to add to my Bizarre Collection of Vintage Toys and look around aimlessly, finding an old suitcase-like box roughly the size of half a shoebox. It's obviously rather old and a little worn out. The people there tell me that this is the most bizarre thing they've ever seen in a while, and given my natural draw to the bizarre, I ask them what's in it. They open the box, and I see...
Shoe mittens.
And these aren't just the typical little cloths you shine shoes with.
Apparently some people running out of ideas back in the thirties or so thought it would be a great idea to make these little knit coverings for shoes, saying it makes them easier to travel with. (And apparently they're some kind odd...fashion...thing, as I'll talk about later.) Obviously, you can see several problems with this: What else would you do with it? How does it help you in travel if it just takes up space and is pretty useless? You're not even supposed to use it to shine shoes anyway, unlike the somewhat useful modern-day shoe mitt! Why is it in its own box and rather tight-fitting for a shoe? (There's even a little card with them made by their maker that explains the purpose of these weirdo things. I'm not entirely sure in my decisions, but when you have to justify your product like that, your idea is going nowhere.) Shoe Mittens even apparently came in different colors- there was a blue pair, a green pair, and a pink pair in the box, but I'm guessing there were more at some point.
The accompanying illustration also promotes just wearing Shoe Mittens out in the open, as a stereotypical nuclear family of four goes around wearing these things looking like total dorks (at least they looked as if they were enjoying themselves.) These people never told me where they got the shoe mittens from, but I wasn't going to ask them- I was too bewildered by the simple idea of these. MITTENS FOR YOUR SHOES! WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A COMPLETELY NORMAL IDEA BACK AT WHATEVER COMPANY MADE THIS!?!
I have never seen a pair of shoe mittens before or since. Not have I learned any more history on them than what I was given. These still make me wonder to this day- I'm not sure if I'm more perplexed about their existence or the fact someone might have actually used them.
But I would be all for learning more about these things. It wouldn't be a boring story.