Odd Shoe Finder in 1943? Pretty close to it.

Screenshot 2016-07-12 21.19.41A shoe exchange for amputees is not a new  idea as this article from the July 6th 1943 edition of the Chicago Tribune shows.

At the height of the Second World War, and with a growing number of amputees returning from active service, the Disabled Persons Association of America are reported as setting up such an exchange. The Tribune writes:

The swap and exchange service went into full business swing …setting up files that will help match left and right gloves and shoes for persons throughout the country.

Gloves? Wow.




The Tribune then explains:

The exchange is not a mail order service of actual goods. Rather, it is matching the names of users of the same sizes.

This is not far from what Odd Shoe Finder does over 70 years later. Of course we now have the internet. Like Odd Shoe Finder, the exchange had no fees (like us) and people who completed the exchange did so between themselves. Like Odd Shoe Finder, the exchange didn’t actually buy, sell or even stock shoes itself.

It was considered “considerate” for a person to send along a stamp for his reply to an inquiry.

Although, we’re not sure there’s really a market for odd gloves nowadays, it would seem that no matter how much things change, they also seem to remain the same.

 

Author: admin

Colin hails from Melbourne, Australia and has worn shoes for over forty years now.