Plimsolls

A pump or plimsoll (British English; see other names below) is a type of athletic shoe with a canvas upper and rubber sole developed initially as beachwear.

Pumps have solid rubber soles about 8 or 9 mm thick, to which the canvas is glued without coming up the sides (as on trainers). The effect when running is similar to running without shoes.

The shoe originated in the United Kingdom, there called a "sand shoe". It acquired the nickname "plimsoll" in the 1870s. This name arose, according to Nicholette Jones's book ''The Plimsoll Sensation'', because the coloured horizontal band joining the upper to the sole resembled the Plimsoll line on a ship's hull, or because, just like the Plimsoll line on a ship, if water got above the line of the rubber sole, the wearer would get wet.

In the UK plimsolls are commonly worn for schools' indoor physical education. Regional terms are common: around their area of origin (Liverpool, in northwest England) they are often referred to as "galoshes". In Northern Ireland and Scotland they may be known as '' gutties''; "sannies" (from 'sand shoe') is used in Scotland. In parts of Edinburgh and Midlothian they are known as "rubbers" or "gym rubbers" owing to their rubber soles and the need to wear them in the school gym hall. In parts of the West Country and Wales, they are known as "daps" or "dappers". In London, the home counties, much of the West Midlands, the West Riding of Yorkshire and northwest of England they are known as "pumps". There is a widespread belief that "daps" is taken from a factory sign – "Dunlop Athletic Plimsoles" which was called "the DAP factory". However, this seems unlikely as the first citation in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' of "dap" for a rubber soled shoe is a March 1924 use in the ''Western Daily Press'' newspaper; Dunlop did not acquire the Liverpool Rubber Company (as part of the merger with the Macintosh group of companies) until 1925.

Plimsolls were issued to the British military (called "road slappers" by the common soldiery) until replaced by trainers in the mid-80s. If white they required hours of application of shoe whitener, if black they were required to be polished until they gleamed.

It was commonly used for corporal punishment in the British Commonwealth, where it was the typical gym shoe (part of the school uniform). Plimsolling is also a synonym for a slippering.

Outside the United Kingdom

Plimsolls are referred to as:
* Australia – sandshoe, sneakers or runners, and include the similar shoe, the Dunlop Volley.
* Canada – also called running shoes, or runners.
* India – white plimsolls are often worn by school children and are known as Keds dating from the 1970s and earlier, and more commonly, as "canvas shoes". The brown version is used by most police and military units as a gym training shoe.
* Ireland – "Gutties". Occasionally called rubber dollies in County Cork. In County Armagh they were occasionally called Marcel Marceaus - related to the popularity with a burgeoning county mime scene.
* New Zealand – sandshoe was commonly used in the past, although it is now somewhat old-fashioned.
* Pakistan - PT (physical training) shoes, worn during physical education classes in school. Replaced by modern cross trainers.
* Poland – Polish name for shoes with a canvas upper and rubber sole is "tenisówki" or "trampki".
*South Africa – slang for shoes with a canvas upper and rubber sole is takkies.
*United States – sneakers, tennis shoes, basketball shoes, Keds, Vans, or Chucks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plimsoll Shoe
Athletic shoes

pl:Tenisówki