Army & Navy: Foot Soldiers

Boston bootmakers are turning out 249 standard sizes of Army shoes—plus special lasts from plaster casts—giving the U.S. soldier the world’s best military fit.

Major Edward Tremaine, Quartermaster Corps purchasing agent, buys 2,500,000 pairs a month. According to the wearability figures these should keep 16,250,000 soldiers in shoes.

The Russian Army provides only 15 standard sizes and Germany has only a third as many as the U.S. The U.S. theory is logically irrefutable: by providing a multiplicity of sizes, more pairs of feet can be drafted. So far as is known the Russians have not propounded a theory.