I second that, I've never seen/heard of them here. Ever.

All top info chaps. I think Hutton patented the crepe mudguard stitching process in 1936 and the name Play-Boys was trademarked. Klook posted an ad earlier here from one of his Esquire issues from the 50s(?) and Hutton had an ad in the US magazine which quoted the patent no, but no such patent exists on the register today (yes, I did a search, how nerdy is that?!)

To answer shooman's other question the Scandinavians are and always have been obsessed with the style mostly because they are extremely practical in cold snow and ice weather. Despite Kingstonian's fears of suede, in really cold snow (which isn't wet) suede is easy to keep clean and dries out with no problems and no salt marks like leather does after a soaking (not talking cheap crappy split pigskin which will show white stains after a soaking). The crepe also flexes in freezing weather and insulates against the cold and has immense grip compared to other organic compounds of the day. These days of technical footwear that's normal of course.

The same factories that have made the playboy style have always also made the similarly styled curling boots that are used throughout Scandinavia and can still be bought in good stores like NK in Sweden. Again it makes sense that suede and crepe are used on an ice pitch for curling.

Strangely the predominant brand of curling boots sold in Sweden is now Bally and almost every store had them last winter in Gotenborg and lots of well dressed men and women were sporting them.

Heikki wears his Sanders in Finnish winters so I'm sure he can vouch for them too.

Last edited by TheWeejun (2010-04-13 04:43:22)

fascinating. if theyre an 80s NYC rap thing, that might explain it.....this was (and is to a large extent) house territory long after the rest of the country switched over. still, i cant believe ive never seen a pair. when i think "GBX", i think vaguely absurd Surgical appliance air/wallabee/work boot hybrids and crappy square-toed "dress" shoes for cell phone salesmen and walmart employees...in the same class as "lugz" or "sketchballs".
...dessies by "banana joe" and probably GBX as well were briefly popular in that context here 10 yrs ago.....though j crew and the like are currently pushing them to the honky demographic i mostly see them on clearance racks.

Hopefully I can shed some additional light on this matter.  I run George Cox, being great Grandson of the founder.  Many Northamptonshire companies developed their own version of the Huttons Playboy and they were very popular in the 1960's and later (for example Eaton had the Clubman, we had the PopBoy). I hope the following is factually correct, but any errors are not intentional

The Playboy is of Goodyear Welted construction, which is very comfortable, robust, and allows the inclusion of the leather-look slip bead at the top of foxing. However, it is not easy to make. Because the foxing is attached to a crepe runner that is sewn on to the upper at the time of closing (stitching the leather parts together) the shoes can be made in any material.  The technology was taken to White & Co (Earls Barton) who made Playboys as well as their own brand "Whitehall".  White & Co did not go bust, but ceased manufacturing around 2005.  A member of the family still has shoes made under various of their old brands, and approached us to make Playboys through him for the Danish owner of the brand. We did this quite successfully until 2007, when we had to rationalise our own production, because of the difficulty of remaing viable in a very competitive world market. Production was subsequently transferred to Spain.

We continue to make our Popboys in England.  Currently they are all of cemented construction, as the majority (of Popboys) always were.  This is a lighter and more elegant construction.  As the foxing is attached directly to the upper, the upper must be of a form that will take adhesive: the majority are thus suede or nubuck. To make in leather with a top finish this has to be first "roughed" which is fraught with difficulty.  The Popboy was especially popular in Scandinavia from the 1960's onwards, and had a major resurgence in the UK in the early to mid eighties when there was a strong post-punk rockabily revival.  This season it has been very popular in Japan, where the George Cox brand is still very strong. 

They are currently available in UK from from British Boot, Kentish Town Road, London (online too) http://www.britboot.co.uk/engine/shop/category/George+Cox , Jump the Gun, Brighton and Buzz & Co, St Marys Arcade, Cardiff, and online at Oki_ni http://www.oki-ni.com/Brands/George-Cox/icat/george-cox

Last edited by GeorgeCox (2010-04-13 05:21:22)

Welcome!

Last edited by TheWeejun (2010-04-13 07:08:32)

Don't really remember them for the the House/garage (yes Paradise Garage) scene of my formative youth in Yorkshire and Manchester, but those daze are a bit hazy!