Welly Boot

Originally dating back to the early 1800’s the ‘welly boot’ has been a fashion no-go area for most of its’ life. However, recent stylish designs, together with some very high-profile celebrities wearing wellies means the boot is more popular than ever.

In 1815 in the UK, the Duke of Wellington instructed his shoemaker to manufacturer a brand new design of boot. The Wellington boot as we now know it was originally manufactured from leather. However, due to the brand new vulcanization process that had just been invented by Charles Goodyear, the first boots manufactured from natural rubber were released in 1852. Charles Goodyear went on to use his technique to manufacture car tyres.

For generations, the ‘Wellington’ or ‘Welly Boot’ as it is more often known was the chosen footwear for farmers, and not likely to be seen adorning the pages of fashion magazines.

This has all changed over the last few years, with welly boots now available in many stylish and colourful designs and even now with heels.

Dame Shirley Bassey gave a huge boost to sales of welly boots when, in 2007 she performed at the Glastonbury festival in a pair of jewel-encrusted wellingtons.

Ever since,Since then, demand for welly boots has gone through the roof, with more traditional brands like Hunter seeing a large increase in turnover over the last few years. Despite going into administration in 2006, sales ever since then have increased substantially with figures for 2007 being eighty five per cent higher than they were the previous year.

A more recent arrival to the fashion wellies market are WedgeWelly. Their patented wedge is incorporated into a range of wellies which have gone down a storm on the festival circuit this year. The profile of the brand also sky-rocketed after they were shown on the BBC’s “Dragons’ Den” programme and also received backing from one of the “Dragons’”.

Whilst mainly a seasonal fashion statement, the wellington boot looks sure to remain popular into the foreseeable future.