SAFETY FOOTWEAR
How Much Wood Would A Woodpecker Peck if a Woodpecker Didn’t Have Central Heating
H
enry Harington tests the Steel Blue™ Safety Boot that helps him in his conquest of climate change.
I laugh at some of the doom laden commentary about global warming and the industry that has been created around cutting
carbon emissions. There are earnest claims that we need more nuclear power stations. Some politicians have built windmills on their houses showing only that they are tilting at popularity. Whenever there is “a cause” there is an army of people who want to climb on that particular bandwagon – and climate change is just such a gravy train. My great contribution to saving the planet is wood. I have a wood
burner. I light it in October and it usually goes out at the end of March. The background heat of from the wood burner keeps my house warm and when it gets really cold I put on another sweater or as a last resort top up the heat with the central heating. As a result I use a fraction of the oil that my neighbours do. I have access to unlimited supplies
in the woods behind my house. But it is not free. By burning wood in a wood burner I am using a renewable resource, but as much of the wood I use comes from fallen trees I am also stopping the trees rotting and sending CO2 into the atmosphere. Aren’t I good? I said the wood is not free, but it is very energy efficient because it warms
you twice – once when you are cutting it up, and again when you burn it. I get a triple whammy from my wood because in addition to cutting it and burning it, I collect it. I go into the woods with my chain saw to cut up the dead trees and carry the large logs and boughs to the house, where I cut them up so they will fit in the wood burner. Australia has been badly affected by climate change. They have had
26 • FOOTWEAR TODAY
• MAY 2010
terrible droughts and the devastating bush fires are probably caused by the prolonged heat and dry. Steel Blue is an Ozzie company that has been making a range of working boots since 1995. They probably aren’t aware of the joke but it is something of an irony that a nation that is critical of whinging “Poms” has a shoe company making shoes for the hard men of Australian industry that have a “Comfort Guarantee” – have the Australians gone soft? Opening the box with my Argyle steel toe capped
safety work boots the company makes no secret of its desire to change the rules on safety work boots. What they are saying is, “Why should work boots not be comfortable?” Dammit, anyone working in work boots will spend most of their working day with their feet in the boots because they need the protection. And so Steel Blue have a “Comfort Guarantee”, a “Money Back Comfort Guarantee” and a “Manufacturer’s Guarantee” that you cannot avoid knowing about before you have tied the laces for the first time. I tested the Argyle boot , that is a 145mm high lace up ankle boot. It is fully lined, nubuck leather upper with padded ankle, collar and tongue. The confidence the
company has it the comfort of its boots is to a large degree down to the
patented Trisole Comfort technology that strategically places pads of micro- cellular urethane called PORON® which are imbedded in the sole under the peak stress areas of the foot to cushion the feet, knees, hips and lower back from normal day to day fatigue. What this proprietary technology achieves is to reduce shock forces to the
feet, knees, hips and lower back. They have borrowed from the sports shoe industry to offer this and claim that it reduces the risk of stress related injury to the feet and lower body.
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