#4966843
first of all: please forgive my bad english.

I recently looked at the - now auctioned - Egon Spengler boots and did some research.

What catched my eye:

1 - the boots do have a brown hue in some areas. This - in my opinion - is present on the boots and is not an issue of lighting.

2 - the boots do have side zippers - but there are no (male) snap fasteners. These were not present at any time since they would have leaved a mark / trace once removed.

Point 1: the brown hues / scuffs suggest, that these boots were originally brown by default...and then were dyed black afterwards. Hold on, I was in touch with a person who had some interesting storys to tell regarding the color and I'll quote him a bit later.

Point 2: we assume that the boots used in the first movie were combat or paratrooper boots from the vietnam war era. We also assume that that there were several manufacturers back in the day, which had a contract with the gouverment. If these boots were factually from this area and were produced stock in the way we see them now on the auction pictures, I can't see why the US gov would have ordered such boots made like this for one reason: the zipper.

There is NO flap on top of the zipper. The flap has a not so stupid purpose. Not only that it is missing on these boots - they were never present.

When used as combat boots - this boot must have leaked as hell through the zipper. I can't imagine such impractical feature on a combat boot any gouverment on this planet would request on an issued gear.

Maybe these were used ONLY by airmen or air personel...but I've gone through tons of images online showing soldiers in the vietnam war...and I was not able to find a SINGLE picture from an airman or air personel wearing side zipper boots.

Now heres are two quoutes from an email conversation with a company named 'Moore Militaria' (TX):
look like 1950s standard leather combat boots with zippers added (the zippers are 100% not factory). The eay to mid 60s McNamara boots lacked the capped toe. These also look like they may be brown overdyed to black
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all boots made before 56 were brown vs black. Then when they switched the Army ordered all leather goods suck as boots and holsters over dyed. When looking at the toe scuffs etc they look brown and the black looks thin in the photos. The boot laces are also brown which gives the impression they are an older pair that was recycled. As for the zippers, there are no contract boots with zippers. There are some private purchase boots with factory boots (think Tanker boots and Corcoran makes some newer jump boots with zipper) but many were retrofitted with zippers by cobblers near bases. They just don’t have a factory style appearance and again these are an infantry leather combat boot which was never made with a zipper
I wanted to repost some pics from the auction, highlighting all the details but I don't know if it's allowed to repost them here.

Maybe the above observations and these quotes lead to a discussion...
Last edited by Kingpin on February 7th, 2022, 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Added quote coding
#4966847
The original Ghostbusters boots are definitely Jump boots made in the “US Vietnam War” spec. Several different manufacturers stepped up to the plate (Biltrite, Bates, Carolina, Corcoran, etc.) to make almost identical boots with many similar details, and many of them are nearly identical and seem to lose their “maker tags” over the years.
These are the original Ghostbusters boots, specifically Ramis’ pair:
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In the last image, on the bottom left, you can see some very faint black marks which are all that remain of the original printed model/size information inside the shoe. I, as many others in the community consider the Carolina boots to most likely be the correct ones. While the New Old Stock boots below are both Carolina boots, they aren’t always listed as such (although they always seem to be listed as “Munson Last” if that helps anyone searching for them):
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While the side zipper isn’t quite the same, the zip pull appears to be correct, and many of the other stitching details appear to match up very well. I see that the eyelet spacing appears off, and there’s really tiny details that could suggest an earlier/later production date, but I’m fairly convinced these are among the closest boots overall that I know of.
#4966871
Torwen wrote: February 6th, 2022, 2:08 pmPoint 1: the brown hues / scuffs suggest, that these boots were originally brown by default...and then were dyed black afterwards. Hold on, I was in touch with a person who had some interesting storys to tell regarding the color and I'll quote him a bit later.
My well-worn ex-army boots were black issue, but some of the really deep scrapes and grooves they've accumulated through age and use reveal the brown part of the hide that's usually seen on the inside of the boots.

I'm not convinced the production would go to the effort to dye a bunch of brown boots black when they would've been spoilt for choice with black ex-issue boots from the Vietnam and Korean wars.

Here's some of the best but scarce reference of the boots from stills from the film and promotional photographs:

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#4966877
Here’s a shot of Peter with the soles visible (image edited for clearer detail):
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I always thought the boots featured Panco soles, but that’s simply because I could never find Carolina boots with Biltrite soles. I’ve looked at Biltrite boots, but the details never seemed to match as closely.
RedSpecial liked this
#4966901
Kingpin wrote: February 7th, 2022, 12:10 pm
Torwen wrote: February 6th, 2022, 2:08 pmPoint 1: the brown hues / scuffs suggest, that these boots were originally brown by default...and then were dyed black afterwards. Hold on, I was in touch with a person who had some interesting storys to tell regarding the color and I'll quote him a bit later.
My well-worn ex-army boots were black issue, but some of the really deep scrapes and grooves they've accumulated through age and use reveal the brown part of the hide that's usually seen on the inside of the boots.

I'm not convinced the production would go to the effort to dye a bunch of brown boots black when they would've been spoilt for choice with black ex-issue boots from the Vietnam and Korean wars.
Just notived the brown scuffs on the Spengler boots.

In my opinion scrapes - which occour naturally when extensively worn / worn in combat - would look much different. More rough.

When I then got in touch with the person from Moore Militaria, he noticed the scuffs too. The assumption that they might be dyed was not directly mine - but his...see his quote.

I don't think the production would undergo the process of dying the boots - but he (Moore Militaria) stated, that the gov. back in the day ordered the boots to be black.

Therefore, they dyed the brown boots factory wise they already had in stock in order to fulfill the gov's request for black boots...otherwise they would have to discard them (?).

Again no offense...I'm just curious about the fact that we speak about a boot which was mass made, but then is SO rarely seen in THIS exact shape.
DevGameDev liked this
#4966942
Many of the Carolina Jump Boots have been made with the Goodyear Welt Soles, including the ones I posted earlier:
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I’ve recently discovered an interesting listing that appears to show Carolina Jump Boots with a sole that looks very much like the Biltrite soles:
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While the red Carolina logo isn’t visible in the film, these soles look much closer to what’s in the film than any potential Carolina boots I’ve seen previously.
Kingpin liked this
#4966968
Those Carolinas are looking very promising... They appear to have the right shape of zipper pull, and the topmost eyelet for the laces peeks just over the line of stitching like the set that belonged to Harold.
Danman21 liked this
#4967231
I'd like to point out that GB2 boots aren't the same as GB1 boots, and posting pictures of them is probably just going to cause confusion. Like what I'm about to do;

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If you watch this scene, and pay attention to Ray's right sole, you'll see a series of nails highlighted just above the arch. This is a common detail of this model of boot (corcoran 995's have it too).

This type of sole uses two pieces of rubber split at the arch that are fused to the leather above. So you have these extra nails at the split.

But Egon Spengler's boots don't have that kind of sole. His soles are fused heal to toe.
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After a lot of looking at boots, I'm pretty sure these can be identified as biltrite non-slip soles. Like these;

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*Keep in mind the green circles can come in different colors, including just black.

With a little conjecture, this makes a lot of sense. This particular scene is of the stunt team standing on a plexiglass floor. So they could have ordered them non-slip soles.

It also heavily implies that the boots are all Biltrites. We don't have proof that all the boots are from the same manufacturer, but if they were (and productions tend to care about that kind of thing) the only way to do it would be with Biltrite boots.
#4967411
Kingpin wrote: February 9th, 2022, 11:10 am Those Carolinas are looking very promising... They appear to have the right shape of zipper pull, and the topmost eyelet for the laces peeks just over the line of stitching like the set that belonged to Harold.
I noticed the same thing now. The zipper pull, but most importantly, the top eyelet detail as well.
#4967650
The Searcher wrote: February 17th, 2022, 4:04 pm The zip pull isn’t quite right, and there’s minor stuff that isn’t matching perfectly, but the heel stitch shape detail now has me leaning towards the Biltrite theory.
Agreed. the zipper pull is just not totally accurate. Closest are these Biltrite and Carolinas, but i still cant confidently declare either boots , the Ramis boots
#4967653
roigroigroig wrote: February 23rd, 2022, 10:56 pm Where the hell do I buy any of these in a size 10 or 10.5?! Advice would be greatly appreciated!
The Carolinas that I posted images of are in excellent condition. like 9/10 with 10/10 condition for the soles. I found them on ebay. Just keep searching Ebay and Etsy. Vintage Paratrooper/JUMP boots. Vintage paratrooper side zip boots. Vintage Carolina boots. Corcorans are slightly different, but they work too.

Also, get yourself some Leather boot cleaner and conditioner. Also maybe Boot oil. My corcorans got a nasty crack in the leather around the toe because i didnt immediately treat them when they arrived. Scuffs may give them some character but once you get a crack in the leather, its not good.
#4967738
The Searcher wrote: February 16th, 2022, 2:21 pm Someone acquired what they believed were Biltrite boots with inaccurate soles: however, the soles themselves actually look to potentially be the ones used in the film:
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These boots are THE closest I have seen to date...in particular they have two details in common with the Spengler boots I can tell regarding the inside of the boot.
roigroigroig liked this

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