What is a military style boot?

Adult Staff The Staff Mess
21

Surely the civcom is there to help if they genuinely cannot afford proper parade shoes?

4 Likes
22

Problem is that proper shoes are very expensive for a civ comm to buy. I am certainly noticing more and more cadets coming through the door where the parents have very little money.

We keep a stock of used but serviceable shoes in the squadron, we ask all our cadets when they replace there shoes if they are still ok to hand them in for other cadets to use. It works pretty well and i even allow cadets who have grown out of there current shoes to swap them with a pair rather than buying them, it means the squadron always has smaller shoes for our newer cadets.

3 Likes
23

What, Ā£12?

24

Depending on the area Ā£12 a cadet could be a lot of money for a poor squadron

25

In that case Iā€™d suggest that they look into some easy fundraising options.

26

@MattB, Where are you finding these Ā£12 shoes? I have never found them for that price and always had to pay around the Ā£25-Ā£30 mark for them. We are replacing some of ours currently and if i could half my costs i can buy more. The only ones i ever find at those costs seem to be weird sizes that no one wears.

27

http://www.britishmilitarysurplus.co.uk/shop/footwear/parade-shoes-grade-1-1123747.html

28

Weā€™ve got two surplus shops reasonably local. They are the biggest con artists Iā€™ve come across, they make Del Boy look like a trustworthy upright citizenā€¦ I wanted a pair of DMS for kicking around the squadron; phoned them up yes weā€™ve got several pairs of 12 wide G1, get there no G1, but plenty of new at Ā£38 or Ā£34. I walked out and have removed them from our advice lists as while they do have surplus clothing, most footwear is new and not priced to be parent friendly.
I enquired with a place that sold boxes of PW shoes and said I was after these sizes and they essentially said it was pot luck in terms of size and quality.
So the upshot is cadets wear what their parents can afford or get for them.

We have an area WO who gets overly anal about shoes and has been told to wind his neck in and Iā€™ve told cadets to ignore him and similarly parents not to act if their kids come home saying this or that.

I wouldnā€™t ever advise buying footwear online as you need to ensure they fit otherwise you easily get into a two and fro with the postal system, and especially anything PW as they may not have the right size for ages.