Friday 22 January 2010

How to waterproof your feet

Has anyone noticed? It's raining quite a lot today (in London, UK, that is. And probably elsewhere too). That fine, sneaky rain designed specifically to get into your clothing and make you feel wet and clammy. There's enough of it to leave puddles. I'm now going to (imagine some kind of online roll of drums before a magic trick) going to show you a picture of my cycling shoes, taken AFTER I got into work, having braved puddles, horrid drizzle and general wet conditions:



The sharp eyed among you will have noticed:

  1. My boots are horrid and old
  2. I have luminous laces which are, frankly, a bit grubby

  3. They are ... dry!

Until today, these boots would have been soaking and nasty. But I used my Christmas present for the first time in anger today. A pair of ... waterproof shoe covers. There's probably a more technical name. Gaitors perhaps. Or salipettes (?) - no. Anyway, needless to say they're from Mountain Equipment Co-Op and they fit nicely around your shoes. And they kept my boots and feet bone dry. Wow!

Many of you will be going "Ah come on man, we've been using these for years - get with it!" ... but I haven't seen many people using them out there on the streets, and I'm now a convert.

You do somehow look a bit of a git, almost at least half like a penguin - but they do the trick. Here's to a whole new era of dry feet.

KC

3 comments:

patchy said...

pair them with sealskinz waterproof socks, and you'll have super dry super toasty feet forever.

Natalie said...

Picture please!

KarmaCycle said...

Hey Patchy - they sound quite interesting - I've never heard of sealskinz before ... I'll definitely be checking them out. Amazing how much gear you can end up with - yet it all seems very useful!

Nat - OK, I'll have to get myself rigged up again and organise a self portrait so you can see the penguin effect. Expect something ... tomorrow if I can get my act together.