These are a real curiosity. They belonged to Bobby Corson who was an early member of Lochaber Mountaineering Club and Rescue Team in the 1950’s and 60’s. This was an era when nailed boots, having been used by mountaineers for nearly a century, were going out of fashion, largely due to the invention of the Vibram sole by Vitale Bramani (he linked the letters of his name to create VIBRAM) which was made of rubber, and amongst other things such as grip and cost, kept the feet a lot warmer, there being no lumps of cold steel nailed to the sole of the boot. Bobby, along with many other climbers of the time, eased themselves into the new era by adding a few nails of their own to make themselves feel a bit happier. The ITSHIDE Rubber Co. Ltd. produced what was basically a variation of the Vibram in 1947, calling it the Commando sole. They were later ‘contracted to supply to the Ministry of defence, hundreds of thousands of pairs of Commando soles for the manufacture of boots for the armed forces during the Korean War. We know that Bobby Corson bought a lot of ex-army gear from Marshall & Pearsons shop in Fort William and there’s a fair chance that’s where these boots came from.