That little seam on the heel
Ahoy there - you landlubbers......I suspect that whenever you buy a a pair of genuine deckshoes or boat shoes, you have wondered why there is the horizontal 'stitched seam' or raised seam on the back of the shoe? Well ..... it is a very old characteristic in this style of footwear, and had a very practicle use. On smaller vessels where rope ladders were not available (or damaged) climbing the mast was the only way up ! This seam was introduced to help the crewman 'shim' up the mast, allowing grip on the mast as the legs are wrapped arount the mast giving purchase to help the upward movement ........
Avast ya mottly crew, another salty tale...
Probably better known is that the zig zag sole or originally the 'razor cut' sole was developed by a traveler who whilst making heavy going of crossing frozen rivers & lakes (no spikes or cleats in those days, me hearties!) while sitting exhaused by his efforts to cross some ice, he noticed how his dogs walked with relative ease on the slippery surface. So he examined the dogs paws and noticed that when the paw was flexed small & shallow cuts appeared. Maybe, this was the answer. So he cut a similar pattern in the soles of the boots he was wearing and discovered that a degree of grip allowed him to walk with more ease across the ice. He found that on wet surfaces this also gave him a better degree of grip. And so the razor cut sole was born..... Oh arrhhhh gripping stuff!