Objects Database

Kletterschuhe (Climbing Shoes)

Accession Number

622.2008.1

Object Name

Kletterschuhe (Climbing Shoes)

Created

08/12/2008

Creator

Hermione Cooper

Accession Date

08/12/2008

Brief Description

Kletts - early walking/climbing shoes. Brown suede shoes with metal eyeholes and black laces and white laces. Rubber soles.

Materials

suede, rubber, cotton

Dimensions

28(l) x 9.5(w) cms. 29(L) x11(W) cms

Number Of Objects

2 pairs

Inscription Description

On sole a circle with an "S" inside and the inscription "INNSBRUCKER KLETTER SUPER" written below.
On sole of other pair "KLETTER SHOER"

Colour

brown

Maker

Kletter

Object Production Place

Austria

Provenance

Rock climbers used various types of footwear in the early days to help with friction. In the 1930’s French and Italian climbers used ‘espadrilles’ which are a rope soled shoe; Scottish climbers famously wore ’gutties’ which were basically plimsoles often bought from the now defunct Woolworth stores; the Germans had their ‘kletterschuhe’, two pairs of which we have here in the collection.
Our founder, Mick Tighe, had a pair of kletterschuhe in the 1970’s and found them pretty lethal.
Fortunately, Edouard Bordonneau, a Frenchman, perfected a smooth soled boot for rock climbing in the 1940’s which had first been created by another Frenchman, Pierre Allain. Using one or the other of these guys initials, rock boots 60 years later are still collectively known as PA’s or EB’s, though rather confusingly one of the UK’s leading outdoor retailers is called Ellis Brigham ..a different EB.
The EB/PA has been reproduced in myriad forms over the decades with kletterschuhe consigned to the heritage collections ...probably the best place for them!

Acquisition Date

08/12/2008

Condition Check Date

28/04/2009

Rules

Spectrum : UK Museum documentation standard, V.3.1 2007

Modified

28/04/2009

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