Wellington boot

A pair of Wellington boots

The Wellington boot, also known as rubber-boots, wellies, topboots, gumboots, or rainboots are a type of boot based upon leather Hessian boots. It was worn and popularised by Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. This novel "Wellington" boot then became a fashionable style emulated by the British aristocracy in the early 19th century. The boot thus became known, in British English, by its proponent: Wellington.

Wellington boots are waterproof and are most often made from Rubber or PolyVinyl Chloride (PVC) a halogenated polymer. They are usually worn when walking on wet or muddy ground, or to protect the wearer from heavy showers. They are generally just below knee-high. The "Wellington" in contemporary society is a very common and necessary safety or hygiene shoe for vastly diverse industrial settings: for heavy industry with an integrated reinforced toe; protection from mud and grime in mines, chemical spills in chemical plants to highest standard hygiene requirements from food processing plants, operating theatres and state-of-the-art dust-free clean rooms for electronics manufacture.

Origins

The first Duke of Wellington instructed his shoemaker, Hoby of St. James's Street, London, to modify the 18th-century Hessian boot. The resulting new boot was fabricated in soft calfskin leather, had the trim removed and was cut to fit more closely around the leg. The heels were low cut, stacked around an inch (2.5 centimetres), and the boot stopped at mid-calf. It was suitably hard-wearing for battle, yet comfortable for the evening. The boot was dubbed the Wellington and the name has stuck in British English ever since. The Duke can be seen wearing his namesake boots, which are tasseled, in an 1815 portrait by James Lonsdale.^[1]
Wellington's dashing new boots quickly caught on with patriotic British gentlemen eager to emulate their war hero. Considered fashionable and foppish in the best circles and worn by dandies, such as Beau Brummell, they remained the main fashion for men through the 1840s. In the 1850s they were more commonly made in the calf-high version, and in the 1860s they were both superseded by the ankle boot, except for riding.

These boots were at first made of leather. However in 1852 Hiram Hutchinson met Charles Goodyear, who had just invented the vulcanization process for natural rubber. While Goodyear decided to manufacture tyres, Hutchinson bought the patent to manufacture footwear and moved to France to establish "A l'Aigle" ("To the Eagle") in 1853, to honour his home country. The company today is simply called "AIGLE", "Eagle"). In a country where 95% of the population were working on fields with wooden clogs as they had been for generations, the introduction of the wholly water-proof Wellington-type rubber boot became an instant success: farmers would be able to come back home with clean, dry feet.

Production of the Wellington boot was dramatically boosted with the advent of World War I and a requirement for footwear suitable for the conditions in Europe's flooded trenches. The North British Rubber Company (now Hunter Boot Ltd) was asked by the War Office to construct a boot suitable for such conditions. The mills ran day and night to produce immense quantities of these trench boots. In total, 1,185,036 pairs were made to meet the Royal Army's demands.

In World War II, Hunter Boot was again requested to supply vast quantities of Wellington and thigh boots. 80% of production was of war materials - from (rubber) ground sheets to life belts and gas masks. In Holland, the British forces were working in flooded conditions which demanded Wellingtons and thigh boots in vast supplies.

By the end of the war in 1945, the Wellington had become popular among men, women and children for wet weather wear. The boot had developed to become far roomier with a thick sole and rounded toe. Also, with the rationing of that time, labourers began to use them for daily work.

The lower cost and ease of rubber "Wellington" boot manufacture, and being entirely water-proof, lent itself immediately to being the preferred protective shoe to leather in all forms of industry. Increased attention to occupational health and safety requirements lead to the steel toe or steel-capped Wellington: a protective (commonly internal) toe capping to protect the foot from crush and puncture injuries. Although traditionally made of steel, the reinforcement may be a composite or a plastic material such as ThermoPlastic Polyurethane (TPU). Such steel-toe Wellingtons are near indispensable in an enormous range of industry and are often mandatory wear to meet local occupational health and safety legislation or insurance requirements.

Usage and terminology in other countries

Australia

Though most commonly called "gumboots", an alternative name "Blucher Boot" is occasionally heard there, used by some older Australians. Gummies is also a nickname used. Blücher was Wellington's colleague at The Battle of Waterloo and there is speculation that some early emigrants to Australia, remembering the battle, may have preserved an earlier term for the boots that has died out elsewhere. The Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote a poem to a pair of Blucher Boots in 1890.^[2]

Canada and the US

Wellington boots, almost always simply called rubber boots or gum-boots, are popular in Canada and the northern US states, particularly in springtime when melting snows leave wet and muddy ground. Young people can be seen wearing them to school or university and taking them to summer camps.

While green Wellingtons are popular in Britain, yellow-soled black rubber boots are often seen in the US, in addition to Canadian styles. Wellingtons specifically made for cold weather, lined with warm insulating material, are especially popular practical footwear for Canadian winters.

Colourful PVC Wellingtons

Lately designers have made rubber boots another item of fashionable footwear.

In the U.S. white mid-calf rubber boots are worn by workers on shrimp boats and construction workers pouring concrete.

Ireland

In some parts of Ireland one can hear older people refer to their Wellington boots as "me topboots", usually black in colour, as this was a popular name for Wellingtons in the 1960s.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, Wellingtons are called "gumboots" and considered essential foot wear for farmers. Gumboots are often referred to in Kiwi popular culture such as Footrot Flats. The farming town of Taihape in New Zealand's North Island proclaims itself "Gumboot capital of the World" and has annual competitions and events such as Gumboot Day where gumboots are thrown. Most gumboots are black, but those worn by abattoir workers, butchers, and by hospital operating theatre staff and surgeons are white, and children's sizes come in multiple colours.

The term "gumboot" in New Zealand is thought to derive from the 19th-century Kauri-gum diggers, who wore this footwear or perhaps because the boots were made from gum rubber. The term is often abbreviated to "gummies". Kiwi celebrity Fred Dagg paid tribute to this iconic footwear in his song "Gumboots".

Nordic countries

The boots are very popular in Scandinavian countries, with conditions and climate similar to Canada. In fact, before its entry into the mobile phone business, rubber boots were among the best-known products of Nokia.^[3][4][5]

Russia

In Russia rubber boots were first introduced in 1920s. Immediately, they became extremely popular because of Russian weather conditions. During the rule of Stalin, 17 rubber-boot factories were built in different parts of the USSR. Along with valenki in winter, rubber boots became the traditional footwear in springs and autumns. When Nikita Khrushchev came to power, the boot became charged politically in the context of the "Battle for Modesty" campaign, where rubber footwear was proclaimed as "Socialism style" (thus fashionable), while leather, which was obviously more expensive, was derided as "Capitalism style" (thus unfashionable). During the period 1961–1964 leather footwear disappeared from Soviet shops. When Leonid Brezhnev came to power in 1964, the usual leather footwear returned to shops, and rubber boots quickly lost their popularity.

Wellingtons in sport and song

Gumboot Dance performed by mine workers in South Africa

In South Africa, the sound of people dancing in gumboots has been incorporated into a form of semi-traditional popular music, often known as "gumboot music" or "gumboot zydeco" in Africa or Welly boot dance by people from Britain. The dance is said to have been performed by miners to keep their spirits up whilst working.

In 1974, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly adopted a comical ode to the boot called "The Welly Boot Song" as his theme tune and it became one of his best-known songs. In 1976, satirist John Clarke's alter ego Fred Dagg reworked Connolly's song as "If it weren't for your Gumboots", and created a hit. Wellies have also been used by the band, Gaelic Storm in their fifth full album "Bring Yer Wellies," and in the song "Kelly's Wellies" on the same album.

Between 1994 and 1996, the UK's BBC1 created several series of William's Wish Wellingtons, about a boy named William whose magical red Wellington Boots could grant him wishes.

In Britain, there is a light-hearted sport, known as wellie wanging, which involves throwing Wellington boots as far as possible.

Industrial wear

As stated above, the all-rubber (or plastic, composite, etc) waterproof construction, especially when mated to a steel toe was an enormous and widely adopted footwear for all manner of industry. An exhaustive list is beyond the scope of the article, but a sort list would include:

White boots- one-piece construction, commonly of PVC or a similar plastic worn in

• surgeries
• abattoirs or meat-packing plants
• fast-food industry
• Haz-Mat hazardous chemicals clean up operations
• clean rooms for delicate and sensitive electronics, including satellites and microchips
• US shrimp boats
• US concrete pouring

See also

• Mackintosh
• Gumboot Day
• Beef Wellington
• Galoshes
• Gumbys
• William's Wish Wellingtons
• Hunter Boot Ltd

References