Future Purchase: Alden Surgical Boots

Ever since a friend commented that my snappy lace-up ankle boots looked like a pair her father wore to correct for a clubfoot condition I've started to look into purchasing footware through medical/surgical supply markets. My first fashion find was a pair of surgical boots from Alden of New England. In lieu of the usual catalogue prose about winterproof suede and breathable sock liners, the Alden cataloge makes the following, straightforward performance promise: "For use in post-operative cases, fractures, arthritic or gout swelling, contracted feet, vascular edema, etc. Heavy outsole and insole give secure foundation for attachment of bracework." Though I'm fearful that these boots might actually cause gout (or somesuch vintage toe smashing malady) I'm completely smitten with their vintage look: the down-to-the-toe lacing system and simple, charlie chaplinesque black leather hightop boot styling. A more sinister medical footware option is the optimistically named "ambulatory boot" or "amboot" which "eliminates chafing at the back of the patient's leg in the prone position during night splint work or similar situations."