Author: Berit Anderson
I love water. I spent many of my developmental years throwing myself head-first into various bodies of it: quarries, lakes, ponds, bays, straits, sounds-even the occasional mud puddle didn’t escape my attention. To this day I take pride in plunging head-first, nose-plugged into the briny depths of the Pacific in the dead of winter. Still, I can’t help but feel defeated when the skies of Los Angeles County choose to unleash a torrential downpour onto myself and my fellow classmates. This stuff is not the lulling methodical rainfall I fall asleep to on my roof back in Washington state, but a violent assault on my emotional well-being. The one upside of such miserable weather, however, is the wide array of rain gear it attracts on campus.
Among students, there is a cultural divide. First, there are those with the requisite array of umbrellas, carefully unfolded at entrances and exits. These students are obviously used to sudden hammering showers that leave one feeling physically violated, because the average umbrella is wide enough to protect someone’s top and bottom half from a siege of precipitation. This is not the case with the average rain jacket. In the face of adverse Southern California weather patterns, a rain coat doesn’t keep a pair of pants safe from the pounding rain.
Still, these garments are quite prevalent on campus. I would suggest that the majority of people who trot about Oxy in rain coats hail from a locale that is the recipient of a more soothing steady stream of rain. Where I come from, umbrellas are for business people and grandmothers with plastic head kerchiefs. Everyone else and their doctor dons earthily toned Gore-Tex rain gear to avoid unwieldy folding and unfolding every time they go in or out of doors. The really intense rain-ophiles periodically make the trek to REI to re-waterproof their jackets.
There is also a prevalence of jeweled rain boots on campus. While these are well accepted by the female population of Oxy students, males don’t generally feel comfortable sporting vibrant rubber booties from their residence halls to the classroom. I find this to be very sad. I cannot help but wonder at what point in the developmental period of a young man the rain boot becomes socially unacceptable. There are certainly no shortage of themed rain boots available for little boys. I have often wished for feet small enough to slip into a pair made in the image of Thomas the Tank Engine or Theodore Tugboat. If Warner Brothers hasn’t yet marketed a mean pair of Superman themed boots in women’s size 9, they definitely should.
However, rain boots for men in the college set seem non-existent, though I cannot for the life of me see why. It is obviously detrimental to overall male health on campus, as I have often been warned against the repercussions of cold, soggy, water-laden feet by members of older generations. If I were a man with a little nerve and some fashion sense I would definitely find some way to protect myself from the soggy footwear phenomenon.
It isn’t that college-aged males don’t continue to enjoy activities in which the rain boot industry might find marketability. Guitar Hero, Wii Tennis, 300, World of Warcraft, or any American sports league team all seem to be suitable design themes for rain boots. For the more mysterious, trendier male, a more stylish boot might be in order. Perhaps something slightly shorter in subdued shades of brown and army green with a stockier heel and a low slung buckle across the ankle. I’m imagining the sort of boot Johnny Depp might have worn in Chocolat to ensure his gypsy feet stayed warm and dry while courting the lovely Juliette Binoche.
This seems to me like an untapped market upon which the young fashion entrepreneur might do well to prey. After all, on Saturday and Sunday alone Los Angeles county received 2-4 inches of rain according to a recent LA Times article. With water gushing down LA streets at that capacity, tennis shoes just don’t cut it. You can be sure that somewhere out there a plethora of handsome and stylish young men were wishing they had some way to keep their feet warm and dry. To aspiring young trendsetters everywhere, I plead. The male rain boot is an unfilled fashion niche waiting to be pounced upon. Let’s blaze a trail for the public acceptance of man boots. You might even convince Depp to don a pair in his next role.
Berit Anderson is a junior DWA major . She can be reached at banderson@oxy.edu.
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