My 90s Platform Buffalo boots have disintegrated. It's the end of an era...

Spice Girls wearing their Buffalo's in the 90s

The 90s are dead.

For me anyway. For although a 90s fashion revival buzzes and swirls all around us, one of the last tangible connections to my 90s youth - my 1336 black leather Buffalo boots - just crumbled like thick tarry dust in my hands. My Buffalo boots just died - and my heart slightly broke.

This is as much a cautionary tale as anything else. I had no idea something so dramatic could happen to shoes. Especially since they looked completely healthy. A little dusty maybe, but nothing more. But these were a pair of boots that I'd not worn in twenty years.  I had no intention of getting rid of them -  selling them or giving them away - because the sentimental attachment was just too great.

The famed 'Cloud Sole' Buffalo boots and the 90s and the classic trainer style

If you are a British teen growing up in the late 2010's, you've experienced a plethora of traumatic world events, from Brexit, to a worldwide pandemic, financial instability and now, thanks to social media, the close up images of a war and all it's horrific fallout. It's no surprise that the Brexit generation is looking back to the simpler, more optimistic 90s for inspiration, fashion or otherwise.

The cultural legacy of the Buffalo boot is unparalleled. Although the fugly, comically chunky shoe is synonymous with British street-style and clubwear, it was actually made in Germany, by a German, Michael Conrad, who was inspired by Mexican cowboy boots. (I can't quite see the connection either, but according to the Buffalo website, this is where the Buffalo boot's origin story begins.) Conrad visited Mexico in 1976 and admiring the Mexican cowboy boots, stocked up on them and sold them to German fashionistas on his return home. Buffalo boots GmbH was founded in 1979 in Wiesbaden and went international in 1984. 

The Buffalo Store, Frankfurt

In 1995, Conrad created a "sport shoe line which, with it's platform sole was highly innovative in the international market." The Buffalo 'Classic' with it's 'Cloud Sole' became it's signature shoe alongside the edgier 'RingTower', a colossal wedge platform trainer and graced the fashionable feet of everyone from Cher to Madonna to NSync.

Coinciding with the Techno explosion in Frankfurt, and the grunge movement (via the U.S) in the U.K, the Buffalo chimed in with the zeitgest of the time - that of optimism and youthful rebellion.

The Buffalo also represented 90s 'Girl Power' and was adopted by the Spice Girls (sans 'Posh' Victoria) as their footwear of choice.

As of 2021/22 Buffalo is aiming to become more sustainable. 80% of it's output will be PETA-friendly. That means no leather and the polyurothane sole (of which my Buffalo boots were made), will stay. And herein lies the rub (or lack of rubber?). Because PU does not last forever...

My Buffalos in better days

 

I bought my Buffalo boots in the late 90s - 97 or 98, when I lived and worked in Bristol. The shoes had been made big by the Spice Girls - they tended to be seen in the more colourful lace up versions of the shoe. But they were also big on the Bristol clubbing scene.They also appealed to 'alternative' followers of fashion - skater girls, emos, goths, harajuku girls and of course, shorter girls who wanted the 3 inch lift that Buffalo boots provided in the form of a comfy trainer. Their reach was practically universal.

My version of the boot had a velcro strap and made me nearly 6 feet tall. I worked in a pub at the time, and nearly every girl who worked behind the bar owned a version of Buffalos. It was practically a work uniform - we all wore them the same way - with 90s flared trousers or jeans and a crop top or tiny tee. I liked to wear mine with my black Miss Sixty flares, a crop top and a ton of silver jewellery - massive hoop earrings, chunky necklaces, chokers, silver rings mixed with colourful perspex rings. It was a fun, quirky look, with more than nod to Japanese anime. Especially when worn with 90s make up - thin eyebrows, spidery black mascara with glittery eyeshadow and matte brown lips. 

The disaster that befell my beloved Buffs

Buffalos were great for festivals - thanks to the aforementioned platform, they kept you elevated - which had a dual purpose of keeping you a couple of extra inches away from the muddy ground but also a few inches above people's heads which meant a better view of the stage.

The last time I wore my Buffalos was to Ashton Court festival around 2000. Some careful forensic examination of the grooves in that famous heel showed some grassy mud stuck there. The main shoe however, although a little dusty was in perfect condition.

When I moved back to London, my Buffalos suddenly felt unsophisticated for my new surroundings. Bristol's laid back vibe fitted Buffalos perfectly, but in London they didn't feel quite right. So my Buffalos were relegated to a shelf in my room where I stored all my shoes that were beloved in some way, but no longer worn. Buffalo boots seemed to fall out of favour for the next 15-20 years, until the 90s revival of recent years when they had a massive resurrection in an around 2018. 

On their way to the dump

I bought my Buffalos from the Buffalo shop at the bottom of Bristol's trendy Park Street. A mecca shoe store for the young and fashionable.The shop has long since gone, but I remember it clearly - row upon row of Buffalo boots in every colour and style you could imagine. Buffalo did do other styles of shoe - wacky 70s platform boots and a high, high stiletto court shoe in loud and proud patent red or black - the antithesis of the sturdy Buffalo boot - more of a stripper shoe in fact. When choosing my Buffalos, I  remember choosing the 1336 as it was the least 'Spice Girls' of all the Buffalos. I paid £90 which was a hefty chunk of a barmaid's paycheck.

Today they sell for upwards of £150. Even though I have a vintage shop where I sell pieces mainly from the 90s and early Y2K, I could not part with by boots. The memories I had attached to them made it almost sacrilegious to get rid of them for something as common as money. I did recently decide however, that other boots and shoes from the shelf would have to go. My shoe collection had reached 'a pair for every day of the year' proportions, and I needed space. I took my Buffalos down to clean them and pack them away in a box. I'd dusted them over the years, but not 'moved' them as such. They wouldn't move. They were stuck. I had to 'peel' my boots off the shelf. But that wasn't the worst of it. I  was never expecting what happened next could happen...

Fortunately my platform leather/suede Buffalo boots are still alive and well

The heels of my boots were coming off in huge chunks in my hands, while other parts crumbled like tarry black dust onto the floor. As I desperately tried to hold the shoes together, the more they disintegrated.  It was as if a techno loving vampire from the 90s had been staked, and his/her shoes were the last thing to crumble, leaving a soup of vampire goo and claggy black dust on the floor.  It was heart-breaking and fascinating in equal measure. Who knew shoes could do this?

The science behind the disintegration is to do with the fact the soles are PU and not rubber. After 15 years or so, a process called hydrolisis takes place.

The Buffalo store in NYC 2018

PU consists of long polymer chains that are gradually split apart due to the effect of moisture. As a consequence, PU loses flexibility over time and gradually becomes brittle -  most of the plasticiser vaporises out of the sole and so begins to crumble. 

But why can storing shoes often be more detrimental to their useful life than if they are worn?

Shoes are often stored in the basement, shed or garage – places where higher levels of moisture are normally present. And it is precisely this moisture that amplifies the hydrolysis process and causes the shoes to age even more quickly, even though they are not actually being worn.You can only prolong this slow death and not stop it by keeping your Buffalos in a dry, cool place. Wearing them from time to time so there is movement in the sole and the polymer does not crystalize will also help prolong their life.

2018 collection in NYC

Can you repair or replace your Buffalo platform soles? There is a cobbler in Germany who specialises in replacing destroyed Buffalo soles, but it's a pricey endeavour. The link to their website is: spezialreparaturen

My shoes ended up in the local dump. As I hurled what was left of them into the giant recycling skip at Regis Road, I tried to look on the bright side: that's quite a big space they've left on my shoe shelf...I'll need to find something to fill it with.