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Baby Shoes
3 April 2024
Among our archeological finds (and we seem to make a few more every time we open a closet door or a dresser drawer) at Mom's house were these baby shoes. They aren't ours, we know, because ours weren't high tops.
Baby Shoes. iPhone 15 Pro Max back triple camera at f2.2, 1/453 second and ISO 40.
We have a nephew (whose father once wore these) who has an Imelda Marcos collection of pristine athletic shoes. Somehow, while we were busy making a living, athletic shoes became collectibles.
There are none of those in the house. Just jewelry, silver, porcelain, all of it worth less than a pair of Air Jordans, apparently. Tastes change.
Box Top. The shoe of the baby determines the foot of the adult.
We're trying to get $150 out of our nephew for these high tops. Genuine leather uppers, we pointed out. He's thinking it over.
Meanwhile, we had a look at the inside of the box top.
Designed for self service at the department store, apparently, all you had to do was put Junior's left foot in the left corner of the box to find the right size at his longest toe and the correct width along the right side of his foot.
Ingenious.
They were made by Mrs. Day’s Ideal Baby Shoe Co. in Danvers, Mass. Adra Day started making baby shoes from leather scraps in the early 1900s in a tiny shoe shop with a small group of women. By the 1920s her Ideal Baby Shoes were sold all over the United States. And by the 1940s, the business was operating out of a large factory.
Her innovation was crafting individual shoes for each foot. One for the left, one for the right. She was happy to work with your doctor, her advertisements promised, supplying data and sample lasts.
The top of the box has The Ideal Creed printed right above the instructions.
The Shoe of the Baby Determines the Foot of the Adult
After two decades in business she presumably had the data to prove it.
Although you can't tell by my brother. He prefers to exercise the seat of his pants more than the soles of his feet.