rain shoe covers

[mindstalk]

I find it funny when I learn things from fiction, especially "lower end" fiction, such as when I learned a better way of cutting meat from a webcomic. Or when a yuri manhua introduced me to the idea of rain shoe covers: a girl saw rain, pulled covers out of her purse, put them on, and happily went splashing in the rain. This seemed neat, so I looked it up on Amazon, and found various options: disposable thin plastic that doesn't even cover the top of the shoe, more for indoor than rain use; disposable thin plastic that does go up higher, and might be appropriate for sticking in your bag for emergencies; less disposable rubber things.

I ordered one of the latter months ago, but between California weather and my usual ability to just wait out any rain, had no reason to use them. Until today: we're havig an extended streak of heavy rain, and I have unavoidable appointments. So I broke them out of their packaging at the last minute, found to my relief that they did fit, and went out. Pretty happy with the result.

They're definitely not purse-ready, though. Thin rubber, but not that thin, and a well-defined sole. I don't think I would even want to carry them in my backpack by default. For that, I suspect these would be better: expensive compared to others in the class, but thin and light, high, and claiming non-slip.

While I was composing this post in my head, the word 'overshoes' emerged from some benthic zone of forgotten vocabulary. Also 'galoshes', though wikipedia says that has various meanings. I am not sure I ever owned one: I remember struggling with rubber boots as a child, but I think they went over a socked foot, not a shoe.

I would feel a bit silly for posting about rediscovering overshoes, but two fully grown if not middle-aged adults today were impressed by my covers. One was the dental hygienist, who noticed and exclaimed about them as I got into the chair; another was a random man I shared an elevator with, who was intrigued and curious about them when I bragged a bit after we'd commented on the weather. So the proportion of adults who have forgotten, or not known, that you can put things over your shoes to keep them dry, seems non-trivial.

https://xkcd.com/1053/

Comments

[mtbc]

I was certainly off in adult life, married, etc., before I found out about overshoes (mine sound rather like yours).

[mindstalk]

Glad it's not just me!

[squirrelitude]

A thing that I've been looking to get are (ankle) gaiters, which might help protect me from wet feet when biking in the rain. The rain pants tend to ride up occasionally and dump a bit of water down my boot. The tongue of boots also tends not to be very waterproof for very long...

[mindstalk]

I don't know the gaiters...

The more aggressive rain boots don't have tongues to leak. I remember getting them on being a challenge.

[elusiveat]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I feel like this is a technology that has kind of been forgotten to a large extent.

I have been vaguely intrigued by silicone shoe covers: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=silicone+overshoes&iax=images&ia=images

[mindstalk]

> forgotten

Apparently so! Literally, in my individual case.

Huh, some of those silicone ones come up on my Amazon rain shoe covers search, but I'd passed over them as too short, I guess.

I did notice https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Reusable-Galoshes-Overshoes-XX-Large/dp/B09PHSRXT4 this time, allegedly re-usable and light.

[elusiveat]

"I did notice https://www.amazon.com/Waterproof-Reusable-Galoshes-Overshoes-XX-Large/dp/B09PHSRXT4 this time, allegedly re-usable and light."

I think the bottoms of those are open, which feels suboptimal to me.

[mindstalk]

That would be very sub-optimal, but the description says "These Galoshes have a reinforced non slip rubber sole thus ensuring a safe grip to avoid slipping!"

[elusiveat]

Huh, ok then. I had really thought that the main photo showed the sneaker sole showing through the bottom.