Weighing between 1 1/2 and three tons, the hippopotamus is the third largest land animal on the planet, with a tough skin that has found a new application: London's George J. Cleverley has begun making shoes from it.
There is apparently a small supply of regulated hippopotamus skins that are certified to have originated from animals that died of natural causes without being hunted. Cleverley hand selects the best of these for their texture, color, and a strong grain that gives each shoe a unique appearance.
Photos: George J. Cleverley
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8 comments:
Died of natural causes and not hunted? I find that dubious in the extreme. Culled more likely. Hippo are terribly dangerous and when they get into croplands, amazingly destructive. Of course, you have been able to get boots and shoes made from your own legally hunted skins for years. It makes for one tough shoe.
Looks like a dear old 'Hush Puppy' to me.
Hush Puppy indeed!
That is one elegant shoe.
Aside from the exotic skin,
the shoe itself is perfectly
balanced.
Why dubious oldsarj? Everything eventually dies!
When hippos die, crocodiles aren't far behind. They do live in Africa, after all. And if not crocs, vultures. Nothing that dies in Africa lies around untouched for more than a few minutes.
on the other hand there are hippos that live (and presumably die) in zoos around the world so the skin may come from them right?
I find it less likely that a zoo would sell the hide off a beloved exhibit animal to anyone but a natural history museum than that the hides come from cull hunts in South Africa. RSA is a very important agricultural country made up far more of farms of one sort or another than of game country. Culling goes on all the time.
This is a gross excess and offensive in the extreme. Rhinos are constantly poached and slaughtered for their horns and now for an auxiliary market made up the wearers of grotesquely ugly shoes. Enough. Please don't promote this crap.
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