So stop complaining and listen up.
At around 11.30am this morning, my internet connection died.
This is probably one of few work from home jobs where if the internet connection disappears, it doesn’t really impact you.
It’s now 9.00pm, and only at 9.00am tomorrow will a technician come to check the optical line at my place.
With that out of the way, and nothing better to do at this time of night, what a great time to unload some thoughts about gusseted tongues.
The current situation.
My Everyday line of boots is designed around the Everyday line last (who would have thought). It has a relatively low-medium instep, a D width heel, and a forefoot which can fit up to an E width with a bit of a squeeze.
Now when I originally finalised the pattern for my 4 inch chukka boot, The Wanderer, I had included a gusseted tongue in the design.
Why? Because I thought it was practical, and that people would appreciate it.
On the first point, the practicality, I was both right, and wrong. On the second point, the appreciation, I was also both right, and wrong.
Let’s start with the second point first. The appreciation of a gusseted tongue.
When I designed The Wanderer, I hadn’t really thought deeply across a variety of design topics. A lot of my decision making came down to personal opinion.
So because of this, I thought ‘I appreciate gusseted tongues, they have a valid use case.’
And with no further thought, I designed the tongue to be gusseted all the way to the top eyelet. A full gusset.
Now it’s no secret that boot nerds like gusseted tongues. I’ve read forum posts with people moaning about how their favourite pair would be even better if the tongue was gusseted, and how they won’t buy a boot unless a tongue is gusseted.
Both are valid points, but not it’s not possible all the time. As you’ll find out.
I am not my customer.
The point I’m stating is that these people, like me (and likely you too, boot nerd), appreciate gusseted tongues. They keep debris, dirt, and other crap out of your boot. Simple. So, in this instance, my decision to make the tongue gusseted made sense.
Now as time went on and The Wanderer boot began attracting a more mainstream customer base, I realised that my understanding of whether people appreciate a gusseted tongue was wrong.
This growing customer base of ‘normal’ people either a) had no idea what a gusseted tongue was, or b) didn’t seem to care. And why should they. They were simply just using the boot in a casual, walkabout, office type of wear situation.
You may be thinking, even if they don’t care or appreciate it, it doesn’t matter. A gusseted tongue is useful.
Yes, correct. However it also takes longer to assemble with the upper and requires an odd shape to be cut from the hide, reducing overall yield.
Is it really worth it? Maybe not.
If the majority of my customer base didn’t’ seem to need or appreciate a gusseted tongue, was it worth including it?
I was both right and wrong with my understanding of people appreciating a gusseted tongue.
Boot people yes, normal people, no. My customer base were normal people, not boot people.
This alone was an interesting observation, yet it didn’t really give a definitive direction on a design decision that I was currently working on.
The Wanderer boot facelift.
And, whether I should keep the gusseted tongue.
A gusset changes how a boot can fit. Or not.
Like some kind of police investigator, I still needed more evidence before I could form a solid opinion on which direction to take.
To gusset or not gusset, that is the question.
Fast forward one year later. My patternmaking had levelled up, as had my familiarity with the topology of the Everyday line last. And more importantly, how last topology and a boot pattern interact.
Anyway, back to the main story.
I’d already covered whether people appreciate a gusseted tongue (they – my customer base – don’t). Now I wanted to test my hypothesis on the practicality of a gusseted tongue within a pattern.
We all know the use case of a gusseted tongue. As I’d mentioned, it keeps debris, dirt and other crap out of your boot.
But how well a gusseted tongue works from a design and fit perspective is heavily dependent on two items.
- The shape of the last. (What I call topology).
- The particular pattern put onto that last.
And both of these points impact the fit of a boot on a person’s foot.
Recap. My Everyday line last has a low-medium instep height. This is the shape. The Wanderer boot has a gusseted tongue. This is the pattern.
I was finding that this particular combination of last shape and pattern was making it difficult for people with high insteps, to get their foot into the boot.
To put it into layman speak, it’s no use having a gusseted tongue if your foot can’t fit into your boot.
The technical details.
To explain this further, you must think of a gusset effectively acting as a funnel. At the top of the gusset, it’s very wide. This gusset ‘tunnel’ then decreases in volume down to it’s narrowest point, where the tongue is sewn to the vamp piece.
The gusseted tongue can only be lifted so high, before the sides of the gusset lock out where they’ve been stitched to the facings.
Comparing this to boots without a gusset, an ungusseted tongue can lift at a variety of angles, because it’s not constrained by a gusset locking it to the boot.
This means that a wider range of insteps can fit into the boot. You could say, that the ‘funnel’ (in this example of an ungusseted tongue), is infinitely wide. It’s always wide until it it immediately becomes narrow, where the tongue is sewn to the vamp.
So, in a boot with a gusseted tongue, if your instep fits down this funnel, it fits. And if not, too bad.
You can’t just make the gusset wider either.
Like I was saying, I was finding that the restriction of the gusset meant customers with higher insteps were struggling to fit into The Wanderer boot.
In the short term, I could solve this with my Made to Measure offering. I.e. By building up the instep height on the last. But this wasn’t a real solution. Ideally I just wanted a boot that could fit most people’s feet, using the existing Everyday line last.
Longer term, I could just change the last. Use a higher instep last. This made no sense though, as I’d need to outlay additional capex to purchase the full size range again.
So the only realistic alternative to solve the problem was by changing the pattern. By moving the facings further forwards towards the toe, effectively forming a monkey boot.
This allowed the gusset to keep the wide ‘funnel’ at the top of the boot, but more importantly, shift the narrowest part of the funnel down towards the toe, where the tongue would be sewn.
It effectively allowed the funnel to be spread wider for a much further distance. I.e. From the top of the boot down to the toe, rather than previously, from the from the top of the boot to around the vamp section.
It’s much more likely for people to have similar toe volume when compared to people’s instep volume, so shifting the start of the gusset towards the toe would solve the ‘want a gusset but people can’t fit their instep’ problem.
But this also wasn’t a solution. Because it then turned The Wanderer boot into a monkey boot. Which was a completely new design, not just a facelift.
Bye bye gusset.
Suddenly became very clear.
Remove the gusseted tongue.
Simple. It would to allow more people with varying instep volume to fit into The Wanderer boot, on the existing Everyday line last.
My thought process was as follows. The boot was supposed to be for everyday use. And it’s not everyday that you’re going so hardcore to justify a fully gusseted tongue.
And secondly, I wanted the maximum amount of foot types to fit into the flagship boot in the range. It simply comes down to, if more people fit, it increases the likelihood of selling more boots.
These 2 points, combined with the earlier realization that my current customer base simply didn’t appreciate (i.e. know or need) a gusseted tongue made the decision to remove it from The Wanderer facelift the right one.
I just had to get over myself and what I would personally want.
Which wasn’t so hard anyway. After all, I was relatively detached from my products, as they generally aren’t what I prefer to wear.
The Wanderer facelift, coming soon-ish.
I make for the market, not myself. So why should I be so unhappy about not using a gusseted tongue?
My interior businessman > bootmaker (within reason).
So that’s that. The Wanderer facelift will not have a gusseted tongue.
It finally clears a weight off my shoulder, one that was sitting there for a good 6 months. I knew I’d have to take this decision at some point. I just needed to justify it up with some logic to convince myself.
Oh I almost forgot.
Before closing it out, let’s circle back to my earlier point, on how people wished their favourite pair of boots had a gusseted tongue.
Hopefully if you’re read this far through, you can understand now why not all boots can or should have a gusseted tongue. It’s not just as straightforward as sealing the tongue to the facings with a gusset.
I’d learnt this the hard way, ultimately needing to go through the design process again. With the added constraint of trying to keep the same or similar look as the current Wanderer boot.
At least for now though, problem solved,
