Caliage

[Trinity]

Just how comfortable are Roman Army caliage to wear and work in? I have heard some are foot killers.

[Martin Moser]

Funny pick of subforum for this question. The answer is ... it depends. Just like with modern shoes. It's caligae btw. ;-)

[Gaius Opius Fugi]

Moved to beginner section.

-Adam C.

[jvrjenivs]

If you've a good pair of Caligae it is as okay as a good pair of modern shoes. I've my favorite pair for several years now, don't heavy construction work in them, as well several long distance marches (over 300km sofar) and used them on many, many events. They still are doing a great job, although I had to replace some of the hobnails (of course).

Well, my previous pair was less succesfull. Only served me one season with lots of painful moments. So, yes, like modern footwear it strongly depends on quality of the shoe(design), the leather and how well it fits.

[Gallus Maximus]

Make sure they fit well, and that you repair them well. A single hobnail rivet sticking out of the footbed can ruin your day!

[M. Demetrius]

It sure can. On a 2 mile pavement parade hike last weekend, I kept thinking I had a small rock in my udo. Later, when I could take my caliga off, I found a nail sticking up just enough. Fixed now, but hard to do while on the move. Best advice? Check for that problem before you head out, and fix it with a hammer.

Each left foot step that day was something that held my attention pretty well until I'd fixed that pesky hobnail point later. Glad it was on the side of my foot instead of the main weight-bearing part.

[agrimensor]

don't buy to cheap , because i once bought a pair with a paper or cardboard sole inbetween.I lost a complete sole once as they got wet.Better make them yourself or a friend. Or a trusted suplier.
If possible try them on before buying.

[Nurglitch]

I was once in my DSC caligae for a week. They were initially comfortable but then they started killing me. It's the flatness and the fact your entire weight rests on the ball of the feet, instead of being distributed evenly, as it is in modern, sloping shoes. After that week in caligae my feet were killing me for two weeks, it really took me a long time to recover.

[Gaius Colletti]

I agree with Piotr, I have low arches and need some sort of support in my footwear, which caligae do not offer.

Do not go cheap with caligae like the others have said, I know Windlass and some other companies have cheap caligae on ebay or wherenot, but what is the point if they fall apart right away? I have a pair of Deepeeka's which I like, although I know many people here would argue for better ones.

One thing I have heard about Deepeeka caligae is that if you try to play it safe and get a size bigger just to be safe, the unused portion of the caligae before your toes starts to curl up

[PhilusEstilius]

Having made many pairs of caligae in the past a good hint is to make the soles just a bit smaller than your foot template size, this is done by drawing out you sole size then drawing another line inside this a few mm.
This way when the uppers are fitted they tend to hold the foot more firm, and if the upper is made from one piece cut out a 10mm wide strip at the centre rear that tapers to just above the heel and cross stitch the edges together then with soft thin leather glued against the stitch on the inside this gives also a good heel support.

[Trinity]

Thanks for the reply. Where would you recommend to purchase a pair of Caliage from?

[M. Demetrius]

There are suppliers on this board, but it might be unethical for me to recommend one over another. And where you order them has a great deal to do with where you live.

I've had exactly the same problem with paper inserts. What were those guys thinking? Eventually, you step in a puddle, or it rains and you walk in wet grass. When the sole came off, I thought, "Well, I'll just take the inner sole out and put the uppers on a new sole, but the upper didn't go all the way across, so I ended up throwing them away.

If you make a pair, you can conceal one of those soft plastic grids between the inner and mid sole. That takes up a little of the impact of the foot against the ground. And if you add a pair of socks (udones of one kind or another) you can put an arch-supporting insole inside that, and your feet will thank you for it. Modern feet are not always ready to go without pad and heel structures in shoes, not for very long.

So I cheat. Dr. Scholl is my friend.

[jvrjenivs]

I was once in my DSC caligae for a week. They were initially comfortable but then they started killing me. It's the flatness and the fact your entire weight rests on the ball of the feet, instead of being distributed evenly, as it is in modern, sloping shoes. After that week in caligae my feet were killing me for two weeks, it really took me a long time to recover.

But that hasn't anything to do with what kind of supplier you use. That's just about learning to walk with flat foots/barefooted. Never start doing that for a week. You've to get used to it slowly. I've been walking in caligae as well as barefoot for 10 years now, and can cope with it and different surfaces (barefooted) pretty well. I got most problems with having to walk long trips on concrete, where your shoes doesn't make it more 'soft'. Sometimes I addes a piece of sheepskin in my shoes for that purpose. Will do a good job.

[Nurglitch]

I dare to disagree. I've been a reenactor for some 15 years now, I've worn a lot of shoes and boots, never with any problems. This includes sandals and various kinds of hard-soled boots, like my dragoon ones, soled with wood. The DSC caligae are the very first ones ever to give me this kind of trouble. The week in caligae was in camp and woodland conditions, never any kind hard surface.

My guess as to the main source of the problem:
- too thin a sole. If I step on a hard surface I can feel every nail. This made my feet hurt like hell after the march in Chester
- wrong nail distribution. The pattern may be exacerbating the problems inherent in flat-soled shoes.

I intend to make a pair of caligae for myself some time next year and I do intend to cheat by having thicker leather under the balls of my feet and making the foot slope towards the front.

[jvrjenivs]

Well, if you feel the nails, that is a problem of wrong design indeed! I'm totally agreeing with that. But that's something totally different as you wrote in your first post, where you talked about

flatness and the fact your entire weight rests on the ball of the feet