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What the heck are sand shoes?

RoJoHen

RoJoHen

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The funny thing about Doctor Who still being a British show is that every once in a while there are things mentioned that just don't mesh with my American vocabulary, and it sometimes pulls me out of a scene.

So there's a scene in "The Day of the Doctor" where Matt Smith makes fun of Tennant by exclaiming that "he's wearing sand shoes!" And I feel like I was supposed to find it funny...only I have no idea what the heck sand shoes are. I've never heard that term used until that episode.

I really appreciated this in "Torchwood: Miracle Day" when Esther and Gwen have several exchanges about the differences in vocabulary. I thought that was handled in a particularly clever way, like when Mehki Pfifer is changing his "pants" in the backseat of the car, and Gwen flips out because she thinks he's taking off his underwear.
 
I'm probably mistaken, but I think that is yet another name for "trainers" or what American (like me) would call "tennis shoes".

If it makes you feel any better, that was the first time I heard that term as well, but derived the meaning through context.

Sincerely,

Bill
 
First time I'd heard the phrase too but perhaps it's before (or after) my time.

Typically, I think they're more of a canvas top/rubber soles than what I'd call trainers/sneakers though that may just be me.
 
Redfern said:
I'm probably mistaken, but I think that is yet another name for "trainers" or what American (like me) would call "tennis shoes".

If it makes you feel any better, that was the first time I heard that term as well, but derived the meaning through context.

Sincerely,

Bill
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Yea, another American here that never heard it. I assumed it was either Tennis Shoes or any kind of shoes one might wear at the beach.
 
The term "dickie bow" got me too.

Obviously, from the context, it was another term for a bow tie, but funny.
 
Thanks, LoneMagpie, for the clariication and the visual reference.

Sincerely,

Bill
 
20qynw6.jpg
 
Lonemagpie said:
They're really a particular type of rubber-soled shoes - plimsolls - worn by British kids for PE throughout the 50s-80s. All the Xeron rebels in The Space Museum wear them.

http://steadyschoolwear.co.uk/image/cache/data/bel-800x800.jpg

I guess the War Doctor thinks the rubber-soled Converse are close enough.
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I seem to recall growing up we called them pumps (70s/80s)

bryce said:
Ar-Pharazon said:
The term "dickie bow" got me too.

Obviously, from the context, it was another term for a bow tie, but funny.
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I'm sure that the term "Fanny Pack" strikes our Brit friends as a bit odd...
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Which is why we call em bum bags :lol:

To be honest I got what the War doctor was talking about, but sand shoes isn't a phrase I've heard a whole lot in my life.
 
Starkers said:
Lonemagpie said:
They're really a particular type of rubber-soled shoes - plimsolls - worn by British kids for PE throughout the 50s-80s. All the Xeron rebels in The Space Museum wear them.

http://steadyschoolwear.co.uk/image/cache/data/bel-800x800.jpg

I guess the War Doctor thinks the rubber-soled Converse are close enough.
Click to expand...

I seem to recall growing up we called them pumps (70s/80s).
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Pumps properly are a little different- they have laces, usually (true sandshoes are slip-on), and the soles are a bit thinner and more contoured...
 
Another Brit here, and can't say it's a term I've heard all that often either it might be a regional thing.
 
I always find the "sneakers"/"tennis shoes" thing fascinating because I come from basically the only place in America where the term "gym shoes" dominates: http://spark.rstudio.com/jkatz/Data/comp-73.png (or see #73 here).

Fact fans will be interested to note that less than 0.5% of Americans call them "sand shoes," but the term is slightly less obscure in southern Colorado.
 
Ha, now that I see what they look like, I can definitely understand why Eleven thought it was so funny.

Just too bad Eleven didn't still have his tweed professor costume, because Ten could have had a field day making fun of that thing.
 
Sindatur said:
Redfern said:
I'm probably mistaken, but I think that is yet another name for "trainers" or what American (like me) would call "tennis shoes".

If it makes you feel any better, that was the first time I heard that term as well, but derived the meaning through context.

Sincerely,

Bill
Click to expand...
Yea, another American here that never heard it. I assumed it was either Tennis Shoes or any kind of shoes one might wear at the beach.
Click to expand...

I think "tennis shoes" are a regional thing as well. I grew up calling them that but it sounds funny to me now as an adult. EDIT: Did a google, I guess in the US sneakers are a NE thing. EDIT2: Missed the above post...
 
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plimsoll_shoe

A plimsoll shoe, plimsoll or plimsole (British English; see other names below) is a type of athletic shoe with a canvas upper and rubber sole developed as beachwear in the 1830s by the Liverpool Rubber Company.
Plimsolls used to have solid rubber soles about 8 or 9mm thick and the canvas was glued to them without coming up the sides as on the Trainers which replaced them also provided a degree of cushioning. Plimsolls were still in use to circa 1970s and were the closest possible to running around without shoes.
The shoe was originally, and often still is in parts of the United Kingdom, called a 'sand shoe' and acquired the nickname 'plimsoll' in the 1870s. This name derived, according to Nicholette Jones' book The Plimsoll Sensation, because the coloured horizontal band joining the upper to the sole resembled the Plimsoll line on a ship's hull, or because, just like the Plimsoll line on a ship, if water got above the line of the rubber sole, the wearer would get wet.[1]
In the UK plimsolls were compulsory in schools' physical education lessons. Regional terms are common: in Northern Ireland and central Scotland they are sometimes known as gutties; "sannies" (from 'sand shoe') is also used in Scotland as is the term 'Two boab sliders'.[2] In parts of the West Country and Wales they are known as "daps" or "dappers". In London, the home counties, much of the West Midlands, and north west of England they are known as "pumps".[3] There is a widespread belief that "daps" is taken from a factory sign – "Dunlop Athletic Plimsoles" which was called "the DAP factory". However, this seems unlikely as the first citation in the Oxford English Dictionary of "dap" for a rubber soled shoe is a March 1924 use in the Western Daily Press newspaper; Dunlop did not acquire the Liverpool Rubber Company (as part of the merger with the Macintosh group of companies) until 1925.
As it was commonly used for corporal punishment in the British Commonwealth, where it was the typical gym shoe (part of the school uniform), plimsolling is also a synonym for a slippering.
In the British TV series Doctor Who, the Tenth Doctor (played by David Tennant) was known for wearing these shoes, earning him the nickname "Sandshoes" from his other incarnations in the episode "The Day of the Doctor".
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