Plimsoll is the name given in general terms to all footwear with rubber sole and canvas upper.
In the 1890's Dr.Samuel Plimsoll, a victorian engineer invented 'the plimsoll line'. This was a system devised to control and limit the volume of goods onto ships. Many unscrupulous ship owners in this time were overloading their vessels resulting in numerous sinkings with the inevitable loss of cargo and lives. His system was a series of lines on the outside of the ship to indicate how loaded the ship was. It was extremely unpopular at the time as it meant ships were carrying less goods and therefore making less money. However the system still survives to date on many vessels.
In the 1920's when footwear companies first starting making rubber soled footwear ,with canvas uppers, people started calling this type of footwear 'Plimsolls' because of the resemblance of the upper edge of the rubber on the canvas to the plimsoll line on a ship. The name has been used across the world ever since, and brings back memories, to many school children, ranging from nostalgic to sheer dread,of cold winter days,wearing nothing but a t-shirt, shorts and plimsolls, doing weekly physical exercise classes in a freezing cold gym!
The name aside, our take on plimsoll is made in a factory just outside Budapest, and is based on a shoe they have made there for over fifty years and was originally an exercise shoe for the soviet military.
The factory is old and the moulds used for making the shoes are becoming worn. Every pair is unique, as when the rubber is moulded to the canvas, due to the age of the moulds, a certain amount of 'spew' (leakage of rubber) is visible on the canvas, making no one pair the same. This gives our plimsoll a vintage 'old school' feel.
If you look up in the oxford English dictionary,the meaning of plimsoll and plimsoll line,you will also see the explanation. we also have the definition printed on our swing ticket.
The composition of the sole is rubber and uppers are 100% cotton canvas. Laces will also be 100%cotton.

Made in Hungary

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