YORE SHOES

These football boots are from 1950, shortly after the Second World War. Designs for football boots didn’t start changing till this time. They were this bulky for about 100 years.

 

Early footballs were made out of inflated pig’s bladders. Leather and rubber coverings came along later to allow balls to keep a round shape. In 1851 at the Great Exhibition, two shoemakers from the town of Rugby exhibited round and oval shaped balls alongside their shoes. (It had become very dangerous for the football makers to blow up the pigs bladders by hand and makers had lots of lung problems afterwards, so a solution was needed).

 

In the early days of football there were no uniforms or kits, players would usually just wear different coloured caps or scarves or sashes. Kits started to emerge in about 1857 and football boots were very heavy like these ones, made from thick hard leather with six metal round studs in the sole. How different are these boots compared to football boots today?

 

Did you know? Clothes were rationed in the war so football clubs couldn’t get football kits. Many changed their colours to ones they could buy with ration coupons and some football club supporters gave their own clothing coupons so that their club players could get the kit they wanted.

 

This shoe is for the Long Jump event where athletes run incredibly fast then jump as far as possible. It dates from 1947 which was 3 years after the London 1944 Summer Olympics was cancelled due to the Second World War. The long jump was an event which was part of the very first Olympic games in ancient Greece and also in the first modern games in 1896. These are men’s shoes but from 1948, one year after these were made, women’s long jump became an Olympic event. When London had its postponed summer games in 1948, women would have been able to compete alongside men. The spikes you can see were all over the shoe but nowadays it is more popular to only have spikes on the front part of the shoe to create grip and friction when running fast towards the pit.

 

 

These rugby boots date from just after the Second World War. Rugby is an ancient game but it was developed in the early Victorian days at Rugby school. For example in 1823, a pupil first ran with the ball and the rule stayed on ever afterwards. Rugby was also originally played with a round ball. It was made of a pig’s bladder so the size of it would depend on the size of the bladder. The first written rules for the game were written in 1845 by a prefect in Rugby school. The rules included this line: ‘In the case of accidents, no player may be replaced during the course of the game.’ ‘No prizes or medals will be given.’ When the boys who had written the rules for rugby left the school they took the game with them and clubs sprang up all over the UK which still exist today.

 

 

This is a ladies tennis shoe from 1900 at the end of the Victorian era. Would Venus Williams or Serena wear these at Wimbledon today? In 1884, a lady called Maud Watson won the first Wimbledon ladies’ singles event against her sister Lilian and they would have worn shoes very similar to this.

 

In the Victorian age, the middle class was created and got bigger by the day. Soon many people had more time off and more money to spend so sport became very popular and shoes like this don’t just show us what ladies playing tennis would have worn, but gives us a little piece of history in that by showing us that Victorians now had time to actually wear these shoes at all

 

 

This is a Roller Skate from 1920. In the twenties roads started to be properly surfaced and were now smooth. This led to the popularity of roller skates. The 1920s was a time of rebellion and culture change so these roller skates don’t just show us that the people of the roaring 20’s roller skated but it shows us an example of the independence and desire to break from the norm that people had the chance to do for the first time, even if people disapproved at first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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