Seeking help on deciphering label for knee high boots

Thankyou so much Ruth, that is so very helpful. I need to get myself a decent camera- I am currently relying on a Samsung phone. It usually takes small images, but appears to have changed tact recently. I must look into it!

 

Thankyou! I will study this and see what I can do

 

Hi Lynne, thankyou for your help! The American Indian logo is a stick-on sole, presumably added after purchase. The text says 'longlife Indiana'. The shield on the leather undersole reads 'Vero Cuoio, Made in Italy'

 

That would make a lot of sense, given that the symbol following resembles a horizontal riding crop!

 

Hi Victoria, I neglected to photograph this aspect properly as I looked it up & found they are a brand of stick-on rubber soles. I know I've taken leather-soled boots to the shoemender before if they've had leather soles- to stop the rain leaking through. But then I live in a very damp part of the world!

 

Yes, they're a size 40. Interesting to learn about the riding crop being a symbol for leather. Thankyou for the tip about alligator- I will look that up

 

I had a look & you're right-all the rubber companies feature American Indians. I was blissfully ignorant of the history of the rubber industry until just this minute. Please excuse me for quoting Wikipedia (not the best source) and for going off on a slight tangent:
'The rubber boom and the associated need for a large workforce had a significant negative effect on the indigenous population across Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. As rubber plantations grew, labor shortages increased. The owners of the plantations or rubber barons were rich, but those who collected the rubber made very little as a large amount of rubber was needed to be profitable. The rubber barons rounded up all the Indians and forced them to tap rubber out of the trees. One plantation started with 50,000 Indians but, when discovered, only 8,000 were still alive. Slavery and systematic brutality were widespread, and in some areas, 90% of the Indian population was wiped out. These rubber plantations were part of the Brazilian rubber market, which declined as rubber plantations in Southeast Asia became more effective.[3]

Roger Casement, an Irishman traveling the Putumayo region of Peru as a British consul from 1910 to 1911, documented the abuse, slavery, murder and use of stocks for torture against the native Indians: [4]'

Coincidentally, Roger Casement was a family friend of my Great Uncle's!

 

Would that mean that the boots could be as late as (May) 1991 then? ' 591 40'

 

Hi Anna,

I'm reaching but applying logic, look at it this way, I guessed correctly they had been resoled, enhanced the head dress logo as much as I could and "40 " was the euro size-- then just maybe 5-91 is May 1991 in that combination of numbers on the boots.

And I do think they are Alligator Skin, not embossed but a bit hard to tell.

Not a great rule of thumb but maybe, as you have the boots, think, eyes closed,, running your thumb/finger across paving slabs, you would feel and sense depth of cravises, croc' & alli' skin is the same, where the scales join, most embossing doesn't have this, the crevices are almost shallow/smoothe.

Some of my croc' and alli items--you almost fall in, well thumb does.

 

I agree with 80's if there were any doubt ;)

I was wondering if you have something in the US wiki, like this list i found on UK wiki of current and closed shoe & clothing stores in the UK. I had a quick look through it as obviously we have international stores too, it's not complete and nothing stood out i'm afraid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_clothing_and_footwear_shops_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

Thankyou, that's really helpful advice. I had researched the subject online, but that method makes more sense to me!

 

Thankyou so much for looking!
I bought these boots second-hand when I worked in a vintage shop (in N.Ireland). It is possible my boss was ordering stock from the US; the stick-on sole does seem to be an American brand. They are an EU size, so it's also possible they were bought at a boutique in Italy- but labelled for the English-speaking market/tourists. I did come across a similar pair of alligator boots that came out of an Italian 'Boutique' (It's just an assumption that the insole says 'boutique' by the way, but it definitely looks like 'IQUE')