Why The Shoe Fits

December 16, 2004 7:52 AM

Meet Charles Brannock. In 1926, he invented a foot-measuring device that has become an industry standard and a landmark of American innovation, now preserved in the Smithsonian.
posted by anastasiav (18 comments total)

Great post.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 7:58 AM on December 16, 2004

the reason i love metafilter. Makes me a better person!
posted by indiebass at 8:03 AM on December 16, 2004

Syracuse geniuses repraZENT! (I've been meaning to make a post like this for months -- thanks, anastasiav.)
posted by gleuschk at 8:09 AM on December 16, 2004

I don't suppose any remembers the live X-ray machines they used to have in shoe stores back in the fifties? This was back when radiation was good for you, and kids would screw around for long periods of time looking at the bone structure in their feet while their parents shopped. Between that and the films of kids smiling while they got sprayed with DDT you can begin to understand why the Baby Boomers can be so terribly dumb on occasion.
posted by Vaska at 8:13 AM on December 16, 2004

NO!

I won't do it
I can't see it
I can't see what's the point-- why I'd shackle my soles
In clanking... metal... PRISOOOONNNS for my toes!!
posted by kenko at 8:31 AM on December 16, 2004

This is great.

Thank you very much. I really enjoyed reading your links and learning something new. Would that all posts be this informative and fresh.
posted by Seth at 8:49 AM on December 16, 2004

I worked as a shoe salesman through my sneior year at HS and for the two following years. The first thing I learned was the name of the device for measuring feet.

It's served me quite well when playing trivia games.

Actually, it's about all the trivia that I know.

I'm lame.
posted by C.Batt at 9:25 AM on December 16, 2004

Vaska,
The shoe-fitting fluoroscope. I never saw one but I would have played around with it if I had.
posted by Qubit at 9:26 AM on December 16, 2004

When I was younger, there was a shoe shop in my small town where the owner would actually measure your foot each time and fit you for shoes...I use to love to go there because it was so novel an experience, but now, sadly it has closed, and I fit myself at bigger shoe places.
posted by nile_red at 9:28 AM on December 16, 2004

Qubit : Thank you! My memory is hazy some days. I have to admit I would love to get my hands on a large one and make a pornographic movie with it just to disturb people. Er, sorry, you probably didn't need to hear that.
posted by Vaska at 10:09 AM on December 16, 2004

I'm going out to get an erector set right now.
posted by pmbuko at 10:51 AM on December 16, 2004

Featured in the highly recommended (by me) Inconspicuous Consumption: An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted, from the Everyday to the Obscure, collected articles from the zine Beer Frame, by Paul Lukas.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 11:19 AM on December 16, 2004 [1 favorite]

Are there actually shoe stores that use these anymore? I, too, fondly remember them from my youth. Today, though, the fitting process has been whittled-down to the high-school-age clerk asking you for your size.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:30 AM on December 16, 2004

hey, Turtles, Inconspicuous Consumption on the web is one of my fave sites! Sadly, although he features a Brannock Device graphic on his webpage, he's not listed the article on-line.
posted by anastasiav at 12:13 PM on December 16, 2004

link to lukas brannock article here
posted by Hat Maui at 1:01 PM on December 16, 2004

Recommendation for Inconspicuous Consumption thirded. Lukas assumes that nearly everyone reading Beer Frame would like to own a Brannock Device, and he's probably right!
posted by kreinsch at 1:33 PM on December 16, 2004

Brannock? Bah. Here's my real hero (from same site)
posted by milnak at 2:17 PM on December 16, 2004

Vaska, I've never seen one of those X-Ray foot-measurers, but both my parents talk of them occasionally. Especially when there's some new cancer scare, my dad always says "I'm surprised I don't have it from looking at my foot in that machine at the shoe store...!"
posted by Oriole Adams at 10:18 AM on December 17, 2004