All language subtitles for [English (auto-generated)] The most popular ugly shoe - Clarks Wallabee [DownSub.com]

[Music]

The Clark Walabi might be the most

influential shoe that you didn't know

was influential. At least I didn't

before we started researching for this

video. So, we're going to cut them in

half to see what's on the inside and

test the materials to see if they're

really worth the money and see if it's

worth investing in a pair of these now

that they're back and they're popular

again to see if they're really worth the

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So, this shoe has a lot longer history

than I ever would have imagined. And it

all started in 1821 when Cyrus Clark

started processing hides with

felmongering, tanning, and wool

stapling, which two of those words. I

didn't know what they meant up until

this point. And then in 1828, they

started inverting sheepkin rugs and

selling them as slippers. So, they take

the the fuzzy part, flip it to the

inside, and make little slippers out of

them. And then in 1833, Cyrus and James

started C and J. Clark Trading, an

official company to start selling their

goods. but they almost went bankrupt in

the 1860s. So, kind of a rough start for

the Clarks. And then 40 years later,

post World War II, in the 1950s, Nathan

Clark developed a desert boot after his

tour in World War II. And that's really

what Clarks is the most known for is

their desert boots. And then also in the

' 50s, Nathan Clark developed the crepe

soul that Clarks is known for today and

virtually invented the casual shoe

market. And then 10 years after the soul

development, Clarks came out with the

walabe in 1967. And it was an adapted

model from the Germanmade moccasins

called Grasshoppers. And they had some

pretty killer marketing around these

shoes that kind of leaned into how ugly

they were. And then in the '60s and 70s,

the wabies became synonymous with the

rude boy culture. And then next it hit

Europe's acid house movement in the late

80s and early 90s because you couldn't

wear sneakers at the club at the time.

So these were a nice non-dress shoe that

were comfortable that they could wear.

And then by the mid90s, this was a Brit

pop staple shoe. And the Verve album

cover has a pair of these. Then

throughout the rest of the '9s, these

became super influential through the

'90s rap scene worn by some pretty big

names like Notorious B.I. Slick Rick,

Wuang Clan, MF Doom, and a lot of other

people. And then as the 2000s came

around, they kind of dropped off in the

popular culture and weren't that

popular. But they haven't really ever

stopped selling them, and they've kind

of had a few blips on their radar. But

now they're back again. And now these

are getting really popular. There's a

lot of hype around them. A lot of the

streetear guys are wearing these.

They've do they're doing some

interesting collabs with Supreme and

Drake and Carheart Kith. So, seems like

they're on the upswing again. And that's

the cool thing about doing the quick

histories of the shoes is now I have a

whole newfound appreciation for this

shoe and the history and the and the

cultural significance of the shoe that I

had no idea before doing this. So, now

let's get to the actual quality of this

shoe. Starting with the leather first.

So, this is a pretty decent leather.

It's tanned by CF Steedstead in England

and they are world famous for doing

basically the highest end suede leather

you can get and it's a chrome tan

leather that's surprisingly thick. It's

2.2 mm thick and that's way thicker than

most sneakers and that's up in that boot

thickness range. So, it's going to be a

nice durable leather and I like that

they finished the flesh on the inside.

It's a nice smooth texture on the

inside. But where does this lie on the

leather crosssection from the grain down

to the really loose fibers? It's really

hard to tell with this because you can't

really see that grain, but I think I see

just a little sliver of that top portion

that's called the grain that's

synonymous with the smooth portion

smooth portion of leather right at the

very bottom of the cross-section. So, I

think what they do is they take a hide,

they sand down the top grain to get it

really even and give it a little bit of

that furry nap. And then they put a

layer of wax over top to lay it nice and

flat. Then they flip that fuzzy bottom

side that's the suede to the outside.

And that's where you see this really

nice even uh textured suede on the

outside. So technically this would be a

rough out waxed Newuk. And I'm working

on a grading system for the suede and

like the fuzzy leathers. So maybe the

next time we do a suede leather, I'll

have that finalized. But overall, it's a

pretty good leather, especially if it

has just a little bit of a sliver of the

grain in there. And it's thick enough

that even if it doesn't, it's a it's a

lot better of a suede than what you see

on most sneakers and other shoes that

have little panels of suede. Next to the

outsole, this is another thing that

Clarks is really well known for. They're

natural crepe rubber outsoles. And this

is about as natural of a rubber outsole

as you can get. It's a lot less

processed and that you can see it's just

kind of chunky and it's really really

soft and squishy and people love this

type of outsole because it's so

comfortable. There are some negative

negative aspects to it. People have big

chunks fall off of it and once you wear

this flat they're really really slippery

and and obviously they look really dirty

really fast which annoys some people.

But overall, a crepe rubber outsole is a

really good casual outsole. And maybe

the biggest potential negative of this

outsole isn't even the compound or how

it's built. It's more that it's just

really small. You know, if you look down

the the side of this, the outsole tucks

underneath of the upper. So, if you have

really wide feet, your your pinky toe

might push this upper out and you might

be standing on the edge of the outsole,

which I would assume would be really

uncomfortable. And then, if we move to

the inside of the shoe, there's not a

whole lot on the inside. All there is is

a sock liner that feels like it has foam

underneath. And you do have a dedicated

counter cover on the inside, which is

the biggest fell point with any shoe.

Everyone's seen it where you just wear

out the inside of your your shoe at the

heel because your heel slips. It wears

that fabric out. And so they've

reinforced it with a nice thick suede

leather on the inside. So there's a good

chance you're never going to wear

through that. So that brings us to the

construction because this construction

is fairly unique especially compared to

all the different mocktoe boots and the

other shoes we've kind of partly have

mocktoes because this is a true moccasin

construction where this side piece wraps

all the way underneath seamlessly and

comes back up this other side and then

it's sewn to this toe piece right here.

And people really like this style of

construction because it's more durable

because you don't have the stitching of

a strobble stitch and you don't have the

upper that's tucked underneath that's

just glued in or sometimes sewn in. It's

just one seamless piece. There's no

stitching for it to fell anywhere. And

because there's no seams, there's no

high spots or seams that you're going to

be standing on all day. And they also

can be really easy to resole because all

you do is pull the outsole off and glue

a new one on. There's no stitching to

undo at all. And all the stitching in

this shoe that holds it all together is

right here at the toe. This is

essentially the only stitching that

matters for this entire shoe. And it's

made of two pieces, which is kind of

crazy. And I really like the way that

they finish the mocktoe itself because

we've seen basically two different types

of mocktoe stitchings. a fake mocktoe

where the leather is puckered up and

then a a a seam is sewn around it to

make it look like a mocktoe. And then

we've seen where it's a two-piece

mocktoe where they come to a point and

the unders sides come together and are

sewn together together giving you that

ridge of the mocktoe. But the walabes

take it one step further where this

upper piece on the vamp not only sews to

the under piece, but it's wrapped around

the top, hiding that seam where those

two pieces come together and also allow

you to have three layers of leather that

you're stitching through. So, it gives

it a cleaner look. It gives it a little

bit more durability and maybe a little

bit more waterproof. But the thing that

really stands out to me is I I'm about

95% sure this is handsewn on here

because it is a little bit jagged. It's

a little bit rough. The stitches are

really wide. It uses a really thick

stitching thread, but more importantly,

you can see where it's been tied off.

And if you pop one of these stitches,

it's not linked together like a sewing

machine thread does, where the upper

thread and the bottom thread loop around

each other. This is sewn a lot more like

a saddle is sewn in the same way that we

sew our wallets. Shameless plug, where

you have two needles on a single thread

and you're weaving the thread in and out

so that if you do pop a stitch, the

whole thing doesn't come unraveled like

you do when you pop a stitch on your

your sleeve. It's just a way more

durable technique for sewing leather

together. And that's why we use it in

the wallets. And that's why I was really

surprised that they did this on this

this shoe because that's a really

laborintensive handmade touch to the

shoe. So, this shoe is already

significantly more impressive and has a

lot cooler history than I expected

before we even started doing this video.

But, we haven't seen what's on the

inside yet. There could be some

catastrophic flaws or some issues or

maybe some things that aren't what they

look like. So, now let's cut them in

half to see if we can figure out the

truth of these Clark walabbees.

Okay.

All right.

[Applause]

All

right, we got them cut in half. And

these are really easy to cut, but they

completely clog up the band saw. The

band gets caked in melted rubber. And

then that melted rubber gets stuck on

the wheels and you end up have to clean

the bandsaw every time we cut one of

these crepe rubber outs. But whatever.

Let's see what's inside.

[Music]

So, just like we guessed, there is that

foam wedge on the inside there. And I

think the majority of the reason they

put that in there is for two reasons. To

cut cost just a little bit and to make

these shoes not quite as heavy as they

would be if you had another like heavy

layer of rubber on the inside there. And

you can also see that there's a

reinforced cardboard almost like shank

on the inside. And I think what that's

there for is to add a little bit of

stability to the shoe to get this rubber

and foam to press to compress equally

and to almost act as it was a little bit

of a shank because of how soft and

floppy these are. And my only fear with

this is that it would slowly separate

over time and then see how like as this

flexes they rub against each other. That

could prematurely wear these out or this

could break. Ideally, you'd just have

leather all the way underneath like a

true moccasin, but it makes sense that

it's in there. And the counters is

cellulose. And then other than that,

there's not a whole lot else in the

shoe. The only thing that I was wrong

about was that the upper doesn't tuck

underneath the entire through the

entirety of the shoe. It stops right

where that sock liner starts and then

it's just tucked underneath and glued at

the heel. So, are the Clark Wabes worth

the money at $160? I think that they

are. You know, there's some improvements

that could be made, but they have really

good materials, a pretty solid

construction, and they have a few

handmade touches that I wouldn't have

expected to have on a $160 shoe. So, I

think they're worth it. Would I get a

pair? Now that I know the history of the

shoe and how deep it actually is and how

many different people wore these shoes

and how many different subg genres of

different artists, art artists, and

different groups of people have adopted

them and made them their own and made

them popular in their own way. and the

fact that they're half moccasin

construction and they have pretty decent

materials and they're really

comfortable. I think I'm gonna get a

pair and I just like the look of them. I

like the way that people are wearing

them nowadays with like a little bit

like the dad jean look. I'm going to get

a pair. So, I I have a I have a newfound

appreciation for the shoe that I just

kind of dismissed before doing this

video because this video was super

interesting. I had no idea how deep the

history of the shoe actually is and how

impactful it's been on culture and how

many different cultures it's been a part

of. It's really cool. And so, thanks for

watching and let me know what your

experiences are in this shoe. Did I miss

anything? And thank you so much for your

support. It's what allows us to do these

really deep dives into these shoes and

what allows us to cut apart two

different shoes basically every single

week so that you guys know what you're

spending your hard-earned money on. It's

really fun and uh thank you guys so much

for everything. See you.

[Music]