Clarks Originals

Clarks Originals traces back to 1825 in Somerset, England, when James and Cyrus Clark turned sheepskin rug offcuts into slippers. The family is still in Street. The Desert Boot came in 1950, after Nathan Clark, serving in Burma in 1949, noticed the suede boots officers were having made in Cairo's bazaars. It has since been worn by mods, Britpop bands, Jamaican rude boys and hip-hop icons. The Wallabee followed in the late sixties, a two-piece moccasin on a crepe sole, first made in Kilkenny. Both come in suede and leather, and Oi Polloi's view is that the crepe sole is the whole point.