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My kangaroo leather baseball shoes were my prized possession. Found them in a clearance bin but cannot remember the price. A bit small but I wore them for years. Sadly I threw them away in a moment of cleaning frenzy weakness.View attachment 92378
Spalding’s Base Ball Guide of 1883
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"Early Shoes and Kangaroos
Little is known about the very earliest baseball shoes. Most likely they were identical to athletic shoes of the day: high-tops, with simple canvas uppers and no spikes. As canvas tended to break down where creases formed, baseball shoes of the 1870s incorporated portions made of leather. Spalding’s “Chicago Club Shoe” was their first foray into a combined leather-canvas upper, and the sporting goods company claimed that the shoe was the “same as used by the Chicago and other League clubs.” The first all-leather shoe made available by Spalding was the calf skin “League Club Shoe,” first offered in 1882 for $6 per pair. By the end of the decade, Spalding had introduced an all-Kangaroo leather shoe available for $7 per pair. Strong, soft, and remarkably durable, Kangaroo leather remained a popular material for baseball uppers throughout much of the 20th century.”