The James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan - Episode 11: History of the Boat Shoe

Episode Date: March 6, 2022

From the Reformation to Kanye West via Richard Nixon and Charles II, here is a brief history of the boat shoe.Fund another man’s journey to boat ownership and join the patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jdfmccannKind thanks to my brother, who lent me his laptop this week. Behold, there’s a vast amount of editing in this podcast. I have not necessarily done good editing, but there is lots of it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you for listening to this episode of the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan. If you'd like to listen to bonus episodes, go sign up to the Patreon. That's patreon.clom. Clom? Ah, we f***ed it. Anyway, look, you'll find a way. Catamaran Home! Welcome to the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan. A podcast all about using a podcast to earn enough money to buy and sail a boat.

But of course, one cannot simply buy a boat. There are a great many accessories, accreditations, dare I even say accoutrements, which must also be in my possession before I am to have successful boat sailing. Well, if one was to, say, drive a car, you know, one doesn't just drive a car. You also need a driver's license, you know. Say one is driving a motorcycle. Well, if you're taking that seriously, you don't just get the motorcycle. You've got to have a leather jacket, goggles, gloves, a helmet if you're a coward.

And what if you're a lady passenger in a sidecar? Well, I think you'd also want a little silk scarf to prevent the wind from molesting your hairdo. And so it is with sailing. Now, at some point on this journey to boat ownership, it is going to become imperative that I purchase some boating supplies and apparel. It's not enough that the sailing equipment that I buy merely boating supplies and apparel. It's not enough that the sailing equipment that I buy merely be in my possession. To get it right, I want to do the research, looking at the history, the culture, the aesthetics,

and the market for all those little things you get with your boat. And I think, frankly, there's probably no better place to start than the boat shoe shoe for the boat shoe is more than merely a shoe that you wear on a boat shoe the boat shoe distinguishes class why the aspirational poor and the novo riche you might see them are wearing a hugely costly basketball sneaker. But it is the relatively inexpensive boat shoe that distinguishes the elite. Why? Find out that and more on this episode of the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan,

The History of the Boat Shoe. The modern boat shoe was invented in 1935 by Paul Sperry. And that brings to a close the history of the boat shoe. I'm just kidding, folks. There's a little more to it than that. Indeed, to really get to the heart of it, let's go back to Restoration England and the reign of Charles II. Cromwell is dead, God be praised, and the Presbyterians have been sidelined.

Our monarch sits upon the throne and how extraordinarily beautifully he is attired. Silk stockings, opulent robes, white high-heeled boots and an enormous crown upon his big big hair this is how the elite should look and over almost all of civilized history that's basically how they have looked think of the emperor of china and the pope in rome and why is my daughter running onto the lawn is everything okay oh? Oh, hi, Dad. How you going? No, I'm recording a podcast. I'm just shutting the door for soundproofing. I'll come out in a bit. Where were we? The Tsars and Tsarinas. This is how rich, powerful people dressed. They are supposed to have clothes that are enormous, intricate,

probably uncomfortable, right? And always expensive. And the Restoration was sort of trying to restore those norms, as well as other things, after decades of rule by Puritans. But look at where we stand in the present day. History has swung, obviously, in a Puritanical direction. It's been a long march here. Franciscans.

The Reformation. Vakers. Methodists. Modernity and finally, for now, progressivism. And the central vibe of all these movements in dress sense is basically the same. And it is, hey, who do you think you are wearing silk and fancy dress while people are hungry, you degenerate weirdo dressed like a normal person. And that's basically what everybody now believes. I mean, obviously I don't believe

that, but you probably do. And because you believe that, it's impossible to think today that our leaders would dress lavishly. The head of state, no matter where you live, if you're in Sudan, if you're in Russia, if you're in Australia, if you're in Sudan, if you're in Russia, if you're in Australia, if you're in China, if you're in America, your head of state probably wears a suit and tie as though he were a humble businessman, rather than the embodiment of the monopoly on violence, which is what he is. For the elites of today, the sartorial mandate is simplicity and normalcy. Old-fashioned aristocratic modes of dress are preserved exclusively for pop singers and dystopian fiction.

And one thinks of the way, for example, they dress in the Hunger Games where all the nasty rich people have powdered wigs and all the lovely poor people are covered in grime. James, that's all very well and good, but what does it have to do with the boat shoe? Shoe. Well, I'll grant it's a very broad lens. But I put it to you that without that historical trend away from ostentation, our elites would not be able to go about town today wearing boat shoes, for the boat shoe

is fundamentally a working man's shoe. It is a shoe for standing above deck and doing things on a boat, rather than, for example, having them done for one. And that's very un-aristocratic, right? You can't imagine Xerxes, for example, hoisting a mainsail. Is he all right? Is he all right there? He's all right there, isn't he? Yeah. You can't imagine Xerxes, for example, hoisting a mainsail. Sorry, my son is just crawling about the lawn and the gate's open. I don't know if he's going to run out of the road.

No, he's fine. He's fine. Well, that, from my studies, is the broadest lens in which boat shoes on the feet of the elite is possible. Because if there wasn't a big puritanical push away from things like silk and satin and aristocratic norms, it just wouldn't be possible for a rich, elite person to go around in boat shoes. But it doesn't explain the why. You know, it's possible for the boat shoes, but why boat shoes of all shoes? Why not clogs?

Why not steel-capped boots? Why not thongs? Or, as you Americans call them, flippy floppies. Well, for that, we must warp into the 20th century and understand what it is to be preppy. Here we are on the beach. In America, in the latter half of the 20th century. And who's that? Who's that over there, walking with his little dog? Why, it's Richard

Nixon. And what is Richard Nixon wearing on his feet? Good Lord. Black leather lace-ups. Gross. Collectively, elite America will see this man in these wingtips and they will say, That isn't right. That's too formal. Nixon here is in stark contrast with JFK. Yes, he had his issues, did JFK, of the sex and the body and the shooting, but at least he knew what sort of shoe to wear to make the wasps feel comfortable. The boat shoe of the preppy style. Preppy style was born of the Ivy League schools in New England.

It's the sort of thing rich people wear at universities like Harvard. And it conveys great liberality. You know, it says, look at me. I'm not dressed for the office, maybe I'll play a little tennis. But then simultaneously it conveys privilege and order because the preppy's book, it's very controlled with practically no variation or experimentation permitted.

The waspy New Englanders who dressed that way 50 years ago, they could pretty much wear the same thing today and be indistinguishable from a contemporaneous waspy New Englander. This is because I believe that the preppy style is the sartorial expression of the ideology of the American elite. They believe that there's an open society, that it's a meritocracy. And it just so happens that their friends, the people they went to prep school with, and their children, who also go to prep schools, and they just happen to be the ones who have all the merit. And of course we must have freedom in our meritocracy,

because freedom, whether that's the freedom from neckties, or the freedom from paying taxes, or the freedom from paying taxes, or the freedom to send your mistress for an abortion, well that's an abstract good if you're a preppy style person. Free markets, free sexual practices imposed top down on the masses of people who don't actually want those freedoms. And a rapist known as freedom, free do. That is what these people, the elites of today, are saying with their preppy clothing. I am relaxed and casual, but in a very formal and unchanging way. We wear polo shirts for recreation, for sport, but it is a sport that only people who

can afford horses are allowed to play. Well, yes, and the polo shirt is to be worn in one way only, popped collar. Then on the legs, we've got chinos, nice and comfortable, unlike proletarian jeans. And if it's chilly, we can wear a blazer, but only with the top button done up, never touching the bottom button. And of course, button done up, never touching the bottom button. And of course, on the very bottom, boat shoes, never with exposed socks. That's apparently a very big deal for these people. And we observe, don't we, that the preppy style over the last 15 years or so, it has now been appropriated by hip-hop culture. Back in the 2000s, rap was all baggy trousers, Back in the 2000s, rap was all baggy trousers, basketball attire, shirtlessness and singlets.

And it said, hello, my name's 50 Cent. I'm tough, I'm black, I'm authentic and potentially you should be afraid of me. Then Kanye West emerges and he's wearing a pink polo shirt, tight trousers and he has a backpack. He's appropriating elements of the preppy look. Sometimes appropriating them in quite funny ways. He's wearing a blazer in the Jesus Walks second video, and he's popped the collar on the blazer, which you would just never do. Anyway, it's clear that what he's saying with the preppy look is,

hello, I am elite. I should be running the country. I'm not just a rapper, not just a hard man from the streets. I should be in charge of everything. I'm a genius. And the boat shoe is a big part of that preppy look. Tellingly, when Kanye gets to design sneakers at Louis Vuitton, what does he give them? He produces what is

basically a boat shoe. Accessories, accreditations, dare I even say accoutrement. Some people might want a boat for status, to show off, to keep up with the Kardashians, that sort of thing. Honestly, I don't. Status, money, these things don't mean very much to me. I mean, they mean something to me. I'm human. But honestly, as anyone will have a look at my outfits or bank account will be able to attest, it is not a very strong motivator in my life. I don't want a boat for the status.

I don't want boat shoes to fit in. I want a boat because I want a boat. That's about it. And why do I want that boat? Because... And that is really the only reason why. Oh yes, of course, it's a secret reason that I only reveal on the Patreon. Listener, this may not come as a surprise to you,

but I sometimes think of myself as something of a Nixon I am a humble suburban husband and father I couldn't be further from the libertine cosmopolitan elite I'm a real wingtips on the beach type fellow and I fear that boat shoes will change me perhaps one really cannot just buy a boat. Perhaps one really does need all the accoutrements. But perhaps one of the accoutrements to the accoutrements is a change of ideology and a change of self.

And that if I begin wearing the boat shoe and talking to the boat shoe type people and being a boat shoe type man that I will truly transform inwardly as well as exteriorly. And this will have great benefits perhaps, for if I move in that world of money and finance and back slappery, then perhaps there will be more people to help me buy my boat. I'll have big money coming in.

I'll be catching whales out here, getting fat stacks of cash towards my catamaran plan. But what of my authenticity? What of who I really am? Will boat shoes change everything? I doubt it. I think it'll probably just be boat shoes. I'm looking forward to buying some, and in a future episode, we will research the different kinds of boat shoe and maybe decide which one I'm going to get. Oh, I saw a $700 Prada boat shoe, and I'm hoping, I'm hoping that we all collectively decide that that's the boat shoe for me.

That brings to very nearly a close this episode of the James Donald Forbes McCann Cadmaran Plan. Thank you for tuning in. Quick shout out. Sign up to the Patreon and you can get all the exclusive Patreon episodes plus pay towards me getting my boat. And of course the boat shoe that will be coming up very soon. And I just end on an affirmation.

Affirmation. On an affirmation. Affirmation. Affirmation. I just want to say be true to yourself. Affirmation. On an affirmation. Affirmation. Affirmation. I just want to say be true to yourself. Affirmation. I'm going to be true to myself. Let's be who we are.

Let's be authentic, but let's be authentic versions of ourselves with boats. There's nothing authentic about poverty. My true, true self is a man who owns a boat and sails it wherever he pleases. God bless you. God keep you. Keep it real. Auf Wiedersehen.

Catamaran ho, everybody.