All I want for Christmas… are boots

Edvarcl Heng | Dec 14, 2007

Over at Singapore's Night Safari, Christmas came a little earlier in the form of oversized GORE-TEX boots. Commissioned by the Singapore Zoological Gardens and created by W.L. Gore & Associates (creators of the GORE-TEX fabric), these outsized footwear were perfect for the elephants who were recovering from foot injuries.

“The best solution we could think of was some type of protective boot that was durable enough for elephant wear-and-tear and possibly also waterproof." Said Dr Sonja Luz, a veterinarian at Singapore Zoological Gardens.

Developed over a 12 month period, these boots are perfectly suited for an elephant's stump of a foot. Though zoo officials confessed that despite the different fasteners (zippers, metal laces, Velcro) that were devised to ward off an elephant's meddling, most are at best a temporary challenge to the average elephant.

So designers had to create a shoe that's comfortable enough such that an elephant would not be tempted to take it off.

Cinderella's glass slipper it is not, but as a kicker of a shoe, it sure boots out the competition in terms of size.

Filed under: Gadgets
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