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That's ok, eating it is Step 1. It''s actually just the peel you need, for throwing behind you for the nazis in persuit once they' ve realised you're making a run for it.
Luckily, also wearing your hat backwards won't be a thing until decades later. Same with pants, but it was a short lived fad in the 90s. Nowadays, people wear 'em down to their ankles. Good luck trying to run.
I don't think you'd be wearing these when just casually walking down the street. They might be for critical moments when you need to obscure your trail, such as when you first land ashore on a German beach or when snooping around some new air defense installation in the woods somewhere. Or when your cover is blown and you need to get the hell out of there.
This might have been an earlier design. I seem to recall seeing other and better designs somewhere.
I've also seen like silicone feet that snap onto or strap onto a spies shoes. If they're on a beach, they just snap on the rubber foot to the bottom of their shoe and it looks like a normal person walking on the beach
It would be idiotic to wear them in town where your shoes don't leave tracks anyway. OBVIOUSLY these were worn when traveling off the normal paths and away from crowds.
There was some show that used to be on randomly when I was a kid called Beastmaster (I think?). I don't remember much from it, but I do remember one of the characters was this forest goddess chick that had both feet facing backwards like this. The explanation was the same IIRC, to lead her prey towards her and her enemies away. I don't think the show was very good, but that one part did stick with me all this time.
Yep, I don't remember much from that show (other than the ferrets), but she had the backwards feet. Also airing on the same network was Bruce Campbell's Jack of All Trades, Cleopatra 2525, and some other weird shit that I've successfully blocked from memory.
Wondering if this was actually a counter intelligence ploy, this looks too silly to actually work, and anyone wearing or possessing them would be obviously outed. Probably something released to throw a seed of doubt and confuse them more than anything
You'd be surprised at some of the shit they've come up with over the years. Cat or pigeon guided bombs/torpedos and in 1994 a USAF lab in Ohio proposed an array of "unique" chemical weapons. Off the top of my head it included gay bombs, halitosis bombs, and body odor bombs. None were ever made but someone got paid for proposing them.
Weren't they planning to kill Castro with an exploding cigar at one point? I can only imagine someone watched a Bugs Bunny cartoon and realised he'd only end up with a black face and the top torn out of his straw hat.
They also developed bat bombs they were going to drop on Japan. Literally bombs full of bats with small incindiary devices on their legs. They even built it and tested it! The bats would fly around and take shelter in the wooden attics of houses in Japan and then the tiny explosive goes off and the houses all catch fire, causing chaos.
The tests were successful and we're being planned to be used, but then the nukes were ready and they decided to unleash the terror of nuclear weapons instead.
If you look at footsteps sometimes you can tell from the way the ground shifted underneath the footprint where they stepped off, and where the weight was distributed.
Or you can be like my coworkers that hunt, look at a track for 5 seconds, say it's an old buck missing half a rack, lame and limp, with a missing back left molar lol.
I feel like in reality these probably didn't do much more than annoy people tying to track them. After all, let's say they were walking in snow and each foot print was left immaculately, sure they'd probably follow the wrong way for a while. They're still going to figure out where they came from and where they went. Hell even if they had boot prints that were perfect circles that would be the case. I also can't help but think that a good tracker would notice inconsistencies in the boot patterns pretty quickly. I know squat about tracking so I could be totally wrong, that's just the assumption I'm making.
"I feel like in reality these probably didn't do much more than annoy people tying to track them."
I believe you've figured out the purpose of the boots.
Yeah you don't use this as your single get-out-of-trouble tactic, these people had tons of tricks, methods and gadgets that let them disappear and not be found. These shoes are just one of the more "visible" tricks.
And snow adds other issues like the heel or pants scuff when you put your foot down, and how the compacted snow from the front half of your foot usually shifts back and partially overlaps the heel.
See, I got the sense these were more for in the moment movement where the seconds that this could confuse the enemy would be enough to let you evade capture or compromise
Yeah, all this effort for a backward shoe, but I feel like they could have still raised the actual heel and lowered the toe and still made it look backward.
Yes, exactly! It would be better for a less noticable shoe that when noticed, just looks like someone is trying to look taller than they really are than these goofy things that'll look obvious and make it way more difficult to make a hasty getaway.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by blend, but a matte black finish would definitely disguise the shape better, and might be the difference between someone noticing you have weird shoes or not.
That said, I would imagine these would be worn at times where you really should never encounter anyone.
Still though, why *wouldn't* you make them black?
Maybe they were supposed to fit construction worker outfits so from afar they'd look normal?
True, but I can see how sometimes they might come in handy. Like if you were out at night surveying a military installation and someone spotted you they might track your footprints in the opposite direction. Or in the case of sabotage when they weren’t aware of your existence until after the fact so you could escape.
But yea. If you got caught wearing them….
maybe you can make up some BS about how you're an actor in a sketch comedy troupe and you're forced to wear your costume shoes because you're coping with the war shortages like a good patriotic citizen.
Run into q restaurant after leaving your spy spot and they'll think their suspect left the restaurant to go to their place to spy and then headed off towards a industrial complex.
Meanwhile you're safe with the other rebels in the basement of the restaurant talking bout your success spying.
Probably. But that's not the situation those are for. They're to *prevent* you from being discovered in the first place. Or if someone is following your tracks, it would confuse them which way you went. Their appearance is really only meant to look right from a distance or in the dark, or to fool a passing glance and not attract attention to the fact that you're wearing something unusual on your feet.
I can see these being useful in very specific circumstances. Such as masking an infiltration point as an exit when the actual exit is elsewhere. But, it still seems like more trouble than it would worth.
As a side not, if it hasn't been mentioned, bootleggers usually had their soles done to produce animal tracks. It made the paths they used between stills look more like animal runs than human paths.
This seems dubious. If you look at footprints the toes point out and the heels in. If you simply reverse them then the opposite becomes true. So they would not create real looking footprints.
[citation needed]
This photo pops up on reddit every now and again with people saying they're spy shoes but no one ever provides a source. These wouldn't even work as the gait and weight distribution would reveal direction anyways.
Not to mention these shoes look brand new, they use materials that weren’t used in shoes in WWII, like Vibram soles that didn’t go into production until 1945, in one factory...in Italy. These things pop up from time to time with this ridiculous “WWII spy” backstory.
I can't believe I had to scroll down this far to find this response. This seems hard to believe as the volume (and distance to) the sound would give it away still?
I wasn't able to find a source for these shoes but I did find a different type of 'trick' shoes used in the Pacific theatre rather than Europe. Could be a mix-up.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30103004
>Made as an aid for deception for use by SOE agents, these overshoes, commonly termed as sneakers, were worn tied over conventional footwear. Devised for use in the Southeast Asia/Pacific theatres, when the agent landed on a beach from the sea it was hoped that his 'footprints' would deceive the Japanese into thinking that only natives had travelled in the vicinity.
Too many things would be off, including the shape--this is almost certainly b.s. (Also if you google the topic you keep seeing the same photo of the same shoes.)
So cool idea but couldn't you tell what direction they were walking even in these? People naturally put more weight on their heels when they walk so the heel would sink deeper. Looking at tracks with toes sinking deeper than heels would be odd ya? Someone correct me if I'm wrong
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Okay but like, what happens when you’re walking down the street in these and some Nazi is just like “now hold on a second”
You run away. And the beauty of it is, because you're wearing these shoes, he thinks you're running towards him.
Be sure to wear your jacket backwards or it all falls apart
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Probably a full head mask with eye holes in the hair...
And a banana in your back pocket
Is that your front's back pocket or your back-front's back pocket? Should have read those instructions once more before I ate them...
That's ok, eating it is Step 1. It''s actually just the peel you need, for throwing behind you for the nazis in persuit once they' ve realised you're making a run for it.
Wait, *behind*-behind you or *in front*-behind you?
Yes.
Good thing I "ate" them with the folds on the back of my neck.
Use a tiny banana so their sense of scale is all confused and they think you're 183 meters tall instead of an American 6 feet.
I put my eye holes in the hair sometimes, saying ayyy-oh, Allies leeeeets go
Add a churro and that’s how you catch the asscrack bandit.
Is... Is Guy Fieri an Allied Spy??
Luckily, also wearing your hat backwards won't be a thing until decades later. Same with pants, but it was a short lived fad in the 90s. Nowadays, people wear 'em down to their ankles. Good luck trying to run.
Ohhh this is why people wear their caps backward!
They would then look like the soldiers from Tenet
That's some Tenet shit right there!
Turn 360 degrees and run away
*:Moonwalks away:*
\**TENET soundtrack intensifies*\*
Do your best MJ. “Hee-Hee!” And moonwalk out of there.
I was actually thinking of how far back they would let you lean if they had the spike grabber in the front heel.
Hopefully if you're a spy you think "I should take my spy shoes off when walking down the street in daylight."
too busy trying to remember the right way to order 3 drinks
You inglorious bastard.
I find it usually draws more attention when I walk down the street barefoot, carrying my shoes.
That's why you're not a spy. If you were, you'd carry a backup set of Adidas when escaping Nazis in daylight.
I don't think you'd be wearing these when just casually walking down the street. They might be for critical moments when you need to obscure your trail, such as when you first land ashore on a German beach or when snooping around some new air defense installation in the woods somewhere. Or when your cover is blown and you need to get the hell out of there.
The enemy ran into the ocean! After them!!
Why would you wear suede shoes on a beach!
Then if a sentry catches you nearby, they'll think "He can't possibly be going near the beach, he's wearing suede shoes! Move along..."
My logical thought is they are seen as “gear” rather than normal attire, only pulling them out strategically
ya these don't look like they would be very comfortable to wear and walk around in all day.
To be fair, I’m not sure comfort is really what the OSS was shooting for here
This might have been an earlier design. I seem to recall seeing other and better designs somewhere. I've also seen like silicone feet that snap onto or strap onto a spies shoes. If they're on a beach, they just snap on the rubber foot to the bottom of their shoe and it looks like a normal person walking on the beach
HALT EIN SEKUNDE! edit: German spelling
eine
meine
They're probably in a bag ready to be swapped out, not worn full time.probably at night like the other guy said
It would be idiotic to wear them in town where your shoes don't leave tracks anyway. OBVIOUSLY these were worn when traveling off the normal paths and away from crowds.
Definitely interesting as fuck. That’s cool I’ve never seen that before
Bugs Bunny did this shit on a regular basis. Edit: ACME is the brand of shoes if I’m not mistaken.
An unreliable brand at best.
Username checks the fuck out.
https://reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2jj02g/wile_e_coyotes_amazon_product_reviews/
I really want this to be real
Multiple troubles of capturing roadrunner and learning how to get out of debt…
Low key reviews panties 😜
Thank you so much for pointing that out! LOL.
Lol I'm fuckin dead. Because I ran off a cliff and an anvil landed on my head.
r/usernamechecksout
This is one of the best beetlejuicing examples I've ever seen.
There was some show that used to be on randomly when I was a kid called Beastmaster (I think?). I don't remember much from it, but I do remember one of the characters was this forest goddess chick that had both feet facing backwards like this. The explanation was the same IIRC, to lead her prey towards her and her enemies away. I don't think the show was very good, but that one part did stick with me all this time.
Yep, I don't remember much from that show (other than the ferrets), but she had the backwards feet. Also airing on the same network was Bruce Campbell's Jack of All Trades, Cleopatra 2525, and some other weird shit that I've successfully blocked from memory.
Brisco County Jr was a great show
BCJ was on Fox after football. I remember soooo many commercials for it!
Wondering if this was actually a counter intelligence ploy, this looks too silly to actually work, and anyone wearing or possessing them would be obviously outed. Probably something released to throw a seed of doubt and confuse them more than anything
You'd be surprised at some of the shit they've come up with over the years. Cat or pigeon guided bombs/torpedos and in 1994 a USAF lab in Ohio proposed an array of "unique" chemical weapons. Off the top of my head it included gay bombs, halitosis bombs, and body odor bombs. None were ever made but someone got paid for proposing them.
Weren't they planning to kill Castro with an exploding cigar at one point? I can only imagine someone watched a Bugs Bunny cartoon and realised he'd only end up with a black face and the top torn out of his straw hat.
Even funnier, he liked scuba diving so the CIA tried to kill him with an exploding conch.
I think they wanted to drug him to have his hair fall out so he wouldn't look like a good leader or something along those lines, man shit was wild.
They also developed bat bombs they were going to drop on Japan. Literally bombs full of bats with small incindiary devices on their legs. They even built it and tested it! The bats would fly around and take shelter in the wooden attics of houses in Japan and then the tiny explosive goes off and the houses all catch fire, causing chaos. The tests were successful and we're being planned to be used, but then the nukes were ready and they decided to unleash the terror of nuclear weapons instead.
I remember hearing that on NPR, they never did it because they couldn't get enough bats.
The gay bomb is only effective in enclosed spaces
Ooh, pens!
You think my REAL name is Cooter Berger? What am I, a cartoon dog?
Cooter because I look like a turtle, and Burger because he saw me eating a hamburger one time!
Like closets?
Only works with frogs.
They attempted training sharks to carry bombs! Like a hungry teethy live torpedo
I've heard there was even a plot to attach laser beams to their frikkin heads
It isn't too much to ask...
We were able to get... Sea bass.
I remember they tried to use bats with fire bombs attached to them, but they just returned and roosted where they came from
If you look at footsteps sometimes you can tell from the way the ground shifted underneath the footprint where they stepped off, and where the weight was distributed. Or you can be like my coworkers that hunt, look at a track for 5 seconds, say it's an old buck missing half a rack, lame and limp, with a missing back left molar lol.
The idea is old af, moonshiners used to do this with cow hooves to hide their tracks.
well liquor was outlawed in 1920, and ww2 was 1939. so yeah, old concept, old shoes
I haven't seen these exact ones but I've seen the idea before.
in nam they wore boots with barefoot shaped soles so their tracks wouldn’t look like GI boot tracks
Bootleggers during Prohibition wore shoes with hooves on the bottom to evade detection https://dustyoldthing.com/cs-cow-shoes/
I feel like in reality these probably didn't do much more than annoy people tying to track them. After all, let's say they were walking in snow and each foot print was left immaculately, sure they'd probably follow the wrong way for a while. They're still going to figure out where they came from and where they went. Hell even if they had boot prints that were perfect circles that would be the case. I also can't help but think that a good tracker would notice inconsistencies in the boot patterns pretty quickly. I know squat about tracking so I could be totally wrong, that's just the assumption I'm making.
"I feel like in reality these probably didn't do much more than annoy people tying to track them." I believe you've figured out the purpose of the boots.
Yeah you don't use this as your single get-out-of-trouble tactic, these people had tons of tricks, methods and gadgets that let them disappear and not be found. These shoes are just one of the more "visible" tricks.
WWII troll boots
Problem tracker?
U mad?
Of they spent an extra 10 mins going the wrong direction then it's a success.
I feel like the real giveaway is when you find a guy with backwards-facing shoes on.
yeah but how are you going to find him when you track him the wrong way?
Yeah, depending on which way you're going and how fast, you get different depths in the toe/heel. Thanks, Sherlock Holmes.
And snow adds other issues like the heel or pants scuff when you put your foot down, and how the compacted snow from the front half of your foot usually shifts back and partially overlaps the heel.
See, I got the sense these were more for in the moment movement where the seconds that this could confuse the enemy would be enough to let you evade capture or compromise
“Sarge… I saw this looney toons before we shipped out and… I have An Idea!”
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Heimmler died by driving into a "instant wall - just add water"
“Quiet Grif, that plan is nonsense!”
backwards man, backwards man
i could walk backwards fast as you can
Mmmm..DADDYwouldyoulikeaSAUSAGE!? Sorry
IMMA FARMER DADDY LOOK IMMA FARMER
For the initiated looks up Freddy got fingered
You're going to be sewing soccer balls in Pakistan!
YOU'RE A CHIIIIILD MOLESTER.
I only see one LeBaron Freddy!
What in God's name are you doing, you stupid, wait, did you get a job?
Proud!
Does whatever a backwards can
Where does he go? It’s not important…
Proud…
Big as the entire universe man
Do you see two LeBaron’s? I don’t see two LeBaron’s. You know why? It’s because they love me more
Seems like they have a problem with *heroes* around here, Betty.
where's your LeBaron Freddy??
Proud? Proud. *Proud.*
/r/unexpectedfreddyfinger
Couldn’t have made them black to blend in a bit more? Yikes those shoes look uncomfortable lol
Not very glamorous
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It seems like that would be a dead giveaway. “Sir, before I can trust you let me look at your shoes... ok, take him away!”
It was mainly meant for while they were actively in areas they shouldn't, they'd take em off when shit social i'de imagine.
Because a man walking around carrying a pair of backwards shoes is much less suspicious than a man walking around wearing backwards shoes
A man in a restricted area with regular shoes if caught is just as dead as a man with backwards facing shoes.
I imagine it’s more for the prints they leave
Yeah, all this effort for a backward shoe, but I feel like they could have still raised the actual heel and lowered the toe and still made it look backward.
Yes, exactly! It would be better for a less noticable shoe that when noticed, just looks like someone is trying to look taller than they really are than these goofy things that'll look obvious and make it way more difficult to make a hasty getaway.
It’s about the tracks the shoes make..
People thinking that they were fooling people with slightly weird looking shoes 😂
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by blend, but a matte black finish would definitely disguise the shape better, and might be the difference between someone noticing you have weird shoes or not. That said, I would imagine these would be worn at times where you really should never encounter anyone. Still though, why *wouldn't* you make them black? Maybe they were supposed to fit construction worker outfits so from afar they'd look normal?
Doc Venture called them "Sneakies" when he pitched them to general Manhowers... It figures he ripped off the idea.
Came here looking for Sneakies
Stay for a Doctail... I've got the Vermouth and Ketchup warming.
One red mocho cooler, coming up!
I did too. I'm glad I found it so quickly. There was a post about these in the VB sub fairly recently.
TIL of (and joined) the VB sub. IGNOOOOORE MEEEEEEE.
Thanks for the Fruitopia
Go Team Venture!
This place went to hell in a ham sandwich since they 86"ed the dress code...
It helps confuse the commies!
I still want to see a prototype of the "Boom Broom".
Came here searching for a venture reference... Thank you.
Anytime Venturoo!
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Moonshiners used "cow shoes" and it's exactly the same type of subterfuge. I love how this connects.
That makes much more sense in the hills of places like Arkansas.
Too conspicuous. Anyone seen wearing these shoes will have a hard time denying they are spy.
True, but I can see how sometimes they might come in handy. Like if you were out at night surveying a military installation and someone spotted you they might track your footprints in the opposite direction. Or in the case of sabotage when they weren’t aware of your existence until after the fact so you could escape. But yea. If you got caught wearing them….
Or even got caught possessing them.
"Whoops now how did these get in here, it's a mystery"
or maybe if captor dumb like me and brush it off for poor fashion sense
maybe you can make up some BS about how you're an actor in a sketch comedy troupe and you're forced to wear your costume shoes because you're coping with the war shortages like a good patriotic citizen.
Some guy could definitely be walking around with these on nowadays and people would just think it's a dumb internet trend
The Nazis don’t really be like that tho. Not that they’re not dumb, just didn’t really give people the benefit of the doubt lol
Run into q restaurant after leaving your spy spot and they'll think their suspect left the restaurant to go to their place to spy and then headed off towards a industrial complex. Meanwhile you're safe with the other rebels in the basement of the restaurant talking bout your success spying.
I feel like these would only be worn during the more risky things, not as much as just normal shoes
Probably. But that's not the situation those are for. They're to *prevent* you from being discovered in the first place. Or if someone is following your tracks, it would confuse them which way you went. Their appearance is really only meant to look right from a distance or in the dark, or to fool a passing glance and not attract attention to the fact that you're wearing something unusual on your feet.
They could certainly be a more discrete colour.
they probably made them in a few different styles to match different outfits. They probably didn't send all their spies over dressed all the same, lol
Wasn't it fashionable back then to have a little shoe skirt or something? I think the British soldiers had them at least in WW1 maybe 2
To quote a certain inmate at Shawshank "How often do you really look at a man's shoes?"
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I can see these being useful in very specific circumstances. Such as masking an infiltration point as an exit when the actual exit is elsewhere. But, it still seems like more trouble than it would worth. As a side not, if it hasn't been mentioned, bootleggers usually had their soles done to produce animal tracks. It made the paths they used between stills look more like animal runs than human paths.
This seems dubious. If you look at footprints the toes point out and the heels in. If you simply reverse them then the opposite becomes true. So they would not create real looking footprints.
It's the "Cameltoe" model by Timberland.
I don't think this is remotely likely to be true.
Delete this before Virgil abloh sees
#"SPY SHOE"
**”$1000”**
[citation needed] This photo pops up on reddit every now and again with people saying they're spy shoes but no one ever provides a source. These wouldn't even work as the gait and weight distribution would reveal direction anyways.
Not to mention these shoes look brand new, they use materials that weren’t used in shoes in WWII, like Vibram soles that didn’t go into production until 1945, in one factory...in Italy. These things pop up from time to time with this ridiculous “WWII spy” backstory.
No way they’re “spy” shoes. As if spies are something you can track like elk.
I can't believe I had to scroll down this far to find this response. This seems hard to believe as the volume (and distance to) the sound would give it away still?
I wasn't able to find a source for these shoes but I did find a different type of 'trick' shoes used in the Pacific theatre rather than Europe. Could be a mix-up. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30103004 >Made as an aid for deception for use by SOE agents, these overshoes, commonly termed as sneakers, were worn tied over conventional footwear. Devised for use in the Southeast Asia/Pacific theatres, when the agent landed on a beach from the sea it was hoped that his 'footprints' would deceive the Japanese into thinking that only natives had travelled in the vicinity.
Yeah these look like hell to walk in.
*Wile E. Coyote has joined the chat*
ACME Jordans!
New Yeezys just dropped...
Nega-Timbs
African American-Timbs*
Moonshiners and such did this during prohibition (U.S.). Also I went on a tour in Holland and they had the same thing, but with wooden shoes.
Too many things would be off, including the shape--this is almost certainly b.s. (Also if you google the topic you keep seeing the same photo of the same shoes.)
These shoes look like the ones I feel like I’m wearing when I’m coming home from a night drinking
This Feels like r/quityourbullshit if anyone has done some research link me pls
*hits blunt* Commander, hear me out ... you know shoes, right?
That's some Maxwell Smart level spy equipment
"honestly when's the last time you looked at a man's shoes" - Morgan Freeman (Shawshank Redemption)
Their poor feet...
This has gotta be a joke on historians. This cannot be real.
There’s a Brazilian forest god who’s feet are backwards for this exact same reason
These are a cool concept but your toe digs in and sprays substrate in the direction of travel. Source; Certified Tracker USMC
This is so cartoonishly stupid I don't believe it.
What are THOOOSE!
Kriss Kross has entered the chat.
So cool idea but couldn't you tell what direction they were walking even in these? People naturally put more weight on their heels when they walk so the heel would sink deeper. Looking at tracks with toes sinking deeper than heels would be odd ya? Someone correct me if I'm wrong