Is anyone familiar with "SIMLAM" utility - please help!

D

dollface_delilah

Registered Guest
Is anyone familiar with \"SIMLAM\" utility - please help!

Hi everyone! I'm new to the Vintage Fashion Guild forum, and wondered if anyone could help me with dating a pair of boots that I'd like to sell on eBay. I'll add pictures as soon as I can, but to give an idea, they're black leather, with leather inner and outer soles, just above ankle height with a 1 inch heel. They lace up the front and look very Victorian in style to me. I was given them as a gift ages ago and was told they were Victorian at the time. HOWEVER, they are stamped inside ~ "Simlam" regd UTILITY ~ in gold, which makes me wonder if they might date from the 40s or 50s. I've tried to research Simlam on the internet but can't find ANYTHING at all to help me date them. Please can anyone help with any info at all about Simlam?? Many many thanks, Emily
 
Utility usually means that something was made during World War Two rationing which lasted from 1941 until 1952 in the UK. Not sure if they had ratrioning in the US though. Post a pic, so we can all see :)

Lei
 
Here's a photo of the boots - hope this will help! I'm a newbie and I haven't figured out how to add multiple images yet, but I will as soon as I can! Warm regards, Emily
 
Hello Emily! :hiya:

I googled for the brand name and I wonder if they could be a sporting boot (hence the utility)? I came up with references to vintage simlam football boots, skating boots etc.

I am not a shoe person by any stretch of the imagination, so hopefully someone will come by and help out - they look in good condition though! (And by the way, I think it took me about a month to work out how to upload a picture, so I am always amazed by people's abilities to do so! :) )

Harriet
 
That makes sense Harriet as these are definately skating boots, the low laced closing with wide tongue is typical. You used to be able to buy skating boots and the blades separately and then have a shoemaker screw the blades onto the base of the boots so if there aren't any marks on the soles where the blades were attached then don't panic. The reason for this was because skating boot manufacturers were different from skate blade manufacturers and it wasn't probably until the 1920s or 30s that they started selling them together but even then you could continue to buy the boots and blades separately. Its really difficult to date skating boots because they remained similar for years. Most skating boots were stil leather and had lacing like this until the 1970s, although men's skating boots usually were flashed and stitched to look more like an athletic shoe from the 1940s on. I would guess these are 1920s/30s.
 
Oh wow thank you SO much that's incredibly helpful!! I DID find a pair of boots that looked very similar to these on eBay when I was trying to find some information about them and they were ice-skates, but with blades attached. It confused me at the time, precisely because I could see no evidence of blades having been attached to these - but you've explained that totally. Thank you very very much for your help!:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top