Boys' Historical Uniform Garments: Footwear--Types

Figure 1.--We note boys in the 1990s beginning to wear sandals in some countries. A popular style was the sport sandals marketed by the large atletic footwear companies. Here we see Belgian cubs in 2003.

Boys in uniformed youth groups have worn a wide variety of footwear from sandals to boots. For youth organizations footwear obviously needed to be robust and hardwearing, what with all that trekking and camping. We notice mostly boots or shoes until after World War II. An exception here is the footwear worn by youger boys such as Cubs in some countries who may have worn sandals. Some boys may have had boots for outdoor activities and shoes for normal meetings and events like church parade requiring a dress uniform. Some groups ma=y have had standards for this while others may have left it to each boy and his parents to decide. Then we gradually see sneakers becoming more common. We occassionaly see sandals before World war II, but they were not very common. We begin to see sandals being worn in the 1990s. The style of sandals we note are the new sport sandals marketed by the major athletic footwear companies. Boots, shoes, and sneakers are still more common, but the sport sandals are growing in popularity.