Boot jack
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A boot jack is a tool that makes it easier and more gentle to take off boots that cannot be opened due to the lack of a shoe fastener ( lacing , zipper, etc.) and are therefore difficult to get off the foot. Boot jacks can also be used to take off low shoes . This is helpful for people who have limited mobility.
The name can be traced back to a servant who helped take off the boots in earlier times.
design type
The boot jack is a sturdy wooden board (or plate made of metal or plastic) with a U-shaped incision on the raised narrow side that is placed on the floor for use and is slightly inclined by a support on the underside. The boot on the foot, which is to be taken off, is introduced with the heel side into this incision; with the other foot you step on the board and hold it tight while pulling the leg off the boot. It is important to ensure that the pull is not exerted too much, otherwise the heel can tear off. More rarely are specimens in which a cutout of different diameter is attached at both ends so that the boot jack can be used for larger and smaller boots.
There are also boot jacks who also support the front shoe (Anglo-Saxon models). Accordingly, the boot is inserted laterally into the recess of such a wooden board at ankle height. Due to the simple geometric design of this aid for taking off boots, boot jacks with imprints also serve as advertising media or are artistically alienated, for example in the form of a stylized bull's head that takes the heel of the boot between the "horns" to take off the boots.
Some models have a vertically attached handle, with the help of which the boot jack can be carried from where it is kept when not in use to the place of use without having to bend down to pick it up and put it down again. At the same time, the handle is used to hold on and thus ensures that the user is in a safe position when taking off the boot.
Simple boot jack
Decoratively alienated boot jack
Boot jack and boot puller hook
Boot jack in the shape of a beetle
literature
- Carl Spitzweg : The inventor of the boot jack . In: Fliegende Blätter , Volume 1, Issue 11, 1845, p. 88 (satire)
