Tuesday, October 9, 2007

If the shoe fits, it's too expensive

Resintrust Galoshes
V. Bayuskin, 1925

Galoshes are waterproof overshoes made of vulcanized rubber. In the last century they were worn over boots and shoes to protect them in rough conditions. Nowadays in Russia they are used only with valenki (a traditional winter footwear) – to prevent them from getting wet in slush.

Galoshes were a popular accessory. The roads were often dirty, so when coming to an office or a house a respectable man had to take the muddy shoes off. Galoshes eliminated the need of a second pair of shoes and reduced changing time.

Before the Revolution tanning and shoe industries were hugely underdeveloped in Russia. There were only few shoe factories, and there were no machinery there – only manual labor. 90% of all shoes were made by individuals and small cooperation manufactories.

The situation after the Revolution did not change, so cheap galoshes which could protect expensive shoes were always in demand. Besides, those who could not afford proper shoes always had an option of wearing galoshes alone or with socks.

The poster shows a woman-worker in her holiday clothes. The advertisement says: “Resintrust. Moscow. Galoshes with Triangle trademark. Every cooperative store should have Resintrust galoshes on sale”.

Check the Shoe posters at Allposters:

9 comments:

TheBlogPrinter said...

Dude, this is some awesome stuff you have on here. You should definitely think about getting a hard-copy of these posts. That way you always have them. Come read my first blog to see what I am talkin' about.

Chase

Oswegan said...

Nice posters, I like the graphics in them a lot.

The blog looks great too.

Cheers,

~Oswegan
http://oswegan.blogspot.com

Fedor said...

nice blog
-fedor

ANI said...

speaking of galoshes -

did you know someone tried to market Valenki for US$70 or so this last winter? I was going to post a link, but the site seems to be taken down - I guess nobody wanted felt boots for that much money - this is where I've read it:

http://tinyurl.com/2uhkfd

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PossiblyMaybeProbablyNot said...

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Alexander Zakharov said...

Theblogprinter

This is a nice idea, indeed. Is it profitable? Do you, or authors do some proofreading and correcting before printing - as what's apporpriate for the Internet is a no-no for the hardcopy.

ANI

Valenki for 70USD is hilarious! This is a very specific kind of a footwear - thousand miles far from Nike :)

Mike said...

As a kid in South Australia going to primary school in the 1950s, I had to wear galoshes to keep my good shoes dry too! Galoshes certainly didn't make it to the cool decade of the 60s though. My (adult) kids would die laughing if I told them about galoshes! Wow - a word I'd almost forgotten....

Macha said...

Hey, galoshes are still popular in some parts of the East.

Brilliant poster, she looks like she's holding a lovely apple!