Thursday, February 05, 2009

Archival Field Trip: Timber Bowl








Backdate to 12/08

Bowling in small doses (say, once every five years) is OK since you get to wear stylistically and historically codified footwear (like an interactive module in a shoe museum). While bowling has inspired fashion oriented footwear, my minimal field research shows little evidence that streetwear has influenced bowling shoe designs. At Timber Bowl, in Springfield, Oregon, I did see a poster advertising a contemporary line of bowling shoes by Dexter (I didn't even know that bowling type shoes were available for sale to the public). But I'm not worried since most of the Dexter styling updates go no further than velcro closures or a special high top edition. For the most part, the overarching Dexter design concept remains firmly rooted in saddle shoe stylings from the 1950s.


Timeless classics




Contemporary options by Dexter Bowling

3 comments:

Quail said...

CAMPER shoes, especially the early styles, are certainly bowler-esque. I like bowling venues. They are surreal to me because they're often used as film sets for quirky Americana movies. If one visits a bowling alley you start thinking Harvey Keitel is going to be in the lane next to yours.

Lesli Larson said...

Indeed. Bowling shoes are sort of a costume extension of the whole Hollywood set design of the bowling alley itself (reading: this is small town American...regardless of the city or setting).

Campers, check.

Lesli Larson said...

Hyde also made some nice, bowling inspired shoes (availability?).