I'm older than Father Time, but I remember these beauties from years ago. You'd put them on the heels of your shoes to reduce wear and tear. Trouble was you'd hear anyone wearing them coming from 100 yards up the road
The preserve of ex-military types or people from a piss poor background like myself who had to make their single pair of "best shoes" last years.

by DonkeyOT65

33 comments

  4. My dad used to talk about them. Apparently at night he could create sparks on the right type of ground 

  5. They were made of metal, hence the “click, click, click” telegraphing of the approach of anyone wearing them.

  8. I walked into Timpsons and asked if they sold them. They don’t because apparently they will split most of the cheap rubber soles nowadays. You can still buy them online though.

  9. There are probably some of these under the kitchen sink at my mum’s house in the tin with the shoe polish in it! I remember she used to make me have these to stop me from dragging my heels and wearing school shoes out too quickly. Worked pretty well, way too embarrassed by the noise they made.

  10. Remember when the ‘horseshoe’ style was popular? The school janitor absolutely hated how these nasties tore up the hardwood floor finish.

  12. Portuguese here, I had those on my boots as a kid back in the late 80s, early 90s – and I loved the sound of my feet on the sidewalk

  14. I still have them on the brogues from my kilt shoes. They do make an impression, walking into a room!

  16. I had these on my shoes when I started working in London back in 92. Stopped wearing them after a couple of years though.

  20. When I see “Blakey” I just imagine a bus inspector with a Hitler moustache saying “I hate you, shoe protectors”.

  21. My old neighbour had these in his shoes and you’d hear him coming home from the pub of an evening walking up his drive

  22. We used to put these on our shoes in school used to get in so much trouble down the corridor so loud now I realise how bloody annoying they were 😂

  26. These were a major craze in senior school mid 70s. They made a loud tack noise if you walked the right way with them in

  27. The last time I remember segs being mentioned was in Coronation Street.

    It was Percy coming into the shop and asking if they had them, and when they all looked confused there was a ‘you young’uns don’t know nowt’ kinda speech.

    …I guess that was back in the day when Corrie had real-life scenes like that – before everyone started killing each other every few weeks.

  28. I’m not that old and don’t remember them but I know they are called blakeys. Fasten them to the bottoms of ur shoes and they clack about. Stops soles from wearing out. I suppose a cheaper way would be to drill out a couple of pennies and screw them to the bottoms of the shoes. Achieves more or less the same thing.

  32. Had a golden time in the 80’s at school. Brougues and Blakey’s were the thing for boys. Everyone trying make the biggest sparks on the concrete outside and eventually being banned because of all the indoor skating which was destroying the floor tiles in the corridoors.

  33. Walking down the tiled school corridor with these on you felt like cock o’the north.

    I seem to recall a Viz character that wore so many he walked on a giant cushion of segs, but can’t find the strip online.

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