{"id":1549,"date":"2014-11-06T08:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T08:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=1549"},"modified":"2014-10-27T14:23:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T14:23:50","slug":"welly-the-eagle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=1549","title":{"rendered":"Welly the Eagle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wellies\"<\/a>It\u2019s the seasons of change that strike a chord: spring and autumn. Somehow they\u2019re all to do with colours, scents, tastes and…wellies.<\/p>\n

Yes, you didn\u2019t mishear me. These are the sludgy months, and so out come the wellies. Of course, I\u2019m grateful to the Duke of Wellington. Without him I\u2019d have soaking feet, be slithering everywhere, and tending to stay in rather than out. But that\u2019s not to say there aren\u2019t problems.<\/p>\n

Sadly, unlike most of my mates, it\u2019s hard to find a pair that fit. As an ardent cyclist, and one time keen weight trainer, I have very developed calves and when it comes to buying boots this can be a real pain. Some may moan about the lack of boots with a snug fit, I have exactly the opposite problem: I can’t find ones that reach the knee without concertinaing.<\/p>\n

High street shops are not immensely sympathetic, even though I know I am not unique. Few carry short wellies, and those that don\u2019t direct you to the kids’ section where those in the right size invariably pinch. I resort to buying online, but it is always a bit hit or miss.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s a potential solution: go abroad. It\u2019s a bit drastic, I know, but local markets in Italy \u2013 if I pay a flying visit to a friend there \u2013 always stock a pair for under a tenner. Add on the cost of the air fare, though, and this makes it slightly excessive. And then this year, while in France, I found an alternative.<\/p>\n

Both I and my partner were in need of a new pair and hit town (all right, countryside) in the middle of the hunting season. Wellingtons everywhere, but I might alert Spock, as it\u2019s not life as we know it. Forget Hunters, or Dunlop, we\u2019re talking comfortable, stylish wellies in all shapes, colours and sizes \u2013 even fur lined should you so desire.<\/p>\n

I was in wellie heaven, and introduced to a new brand: Aigle. First, a bit of background. In the mid-1850s Charles Goodyear invented the vulcanisation process for natural rubber that resulted in the makers of wellington boots switching from leather to rubber. When Goodyear decided to focus on tyres, a certain Hiram Hutchinson bought the patent to manufacture footwear and moved to France a year later and established A L\u2019Aigle to honour his home country.<\/p>\n

Imagine, if you will, a country where generations had been working on the land in wooden clogs. They leapt on the opportunity to return home with clean, dry feet.<\/p>\n

So now I am the proud owner of a pair of Aigle wellies, sadly not red (they didn\u2019t have my size), but the most comfortable I\u2019ve owned to date. And what greets me on my return to these shores but ads for the brand, which I\u2019d never previously heard of, in the weekend supps. Am I now a wellie trendsetter?<\/p>\n

Postscript. Went walking this morning in them, the dog made a run for it in the subway to escape from what she perceived as a rabid mutt, and I slid to the ground doing the splits. Note to self: get snow chains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the seasons of change that strike a chord: spring and autumn. Somehow they\u2019re all to do with colours, scents, tastes and…wellies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1549"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1549\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}