Clogs and Dutch are ideas that belong together, largely due to the success of marketing by the Dutch Tourism industry. A more or less unique product and a more or less unique people – a marketers dream combination.
Reality is quite different. Very few Dutch migrants brought clogs with them, because very few of them wore clogs. In the early 1970s, some clogs were imported to Tasmania by John Hollander, of Hollander Imports. One very large wooden box full. Most were sold as souvenirs, to put pot plants in, to be a decoration.
Clogs are very useful, and can be comfortable if correctly fitted. The timber insulates the feet from very cold workplace floors. Clogs also work the same as neoprene wetsuits – a thin layer of water inside rapidly heats to body temperature and insulates, thus in wet ground where they may fill with water.
Kingston resident Klaas Lanting began his working life as an apprentice clog maker, and still has the knack.
