Not many people know about the origins of boat shoes and some people even mistakenly attribute the name to their shape but this could not be further than the truth. They are also known as deck shoes and this gives one a better clue as to the origins of these popular and stylish shoes.
Boating shoes are a very old style of shoes and their first origins are around the year nineteen thirty five when an American inventor and boating and yachting enthusiast called Paul Sperry noticed that there were no dedicated boating shoes in the market that were up to the task to keeping sailors and boaters form skipping and falling and either injuring themselves or in the worst case scenario going over board in sea going vessels.
He took another recent invention called the process of Siping that had been invented a few years earlier in nineteen twenty three and which was a process of cutting fine grooves into tyres to improve their wet weather traction. Sperry designed a shoe that happened to be very stylish with a herringbone patterned leather upper and a rubber sole that has siping grooves on it to make it safe to wear on a wet deck. He also made the shoes white so that they would not mark the decks of peoples boats. This made them look very distinctive from other shoes at the time.
Besides their good looks boat shoes also had and still have other things going for them. Since they were supposed to be working shoes they were designed to be very comfortable and because they do not have laces to tie or any zips or other sort of fasteners to do up or to undo when putting them on or when removing them, they are completely hassle free and are just slip on and go shoes for the most part.
These shoes are also stylish enough to wear to work and are not out of place in semi formal or even formal situations but they are also not too dressy or too showy and are equally at home in semi casual or even casual situations. They are truly versatile shoes that can be worn all day and all around the year as well and the right pair of deck shoes is truly a great investment and one piece of footwear that every man should have a pair of in his cupboard as they go well with so many things in your wardrobe.