With the growth of heavy industry, thick-soled boots with reinforced toecaps were needed to protect the feet of workers in Britain’s factories and foundries, later becoming the footwear of the British army.

Steel-capped boots, with their metal toe box exposed or concealed beneath the leather upper, became the footwear of the British working class male. As skinheads emerged as a youth movement in the early 1960s, their working-class roots were reflected in their adoption of the steel-capped boot.

By the 70s, skinhead style had become synonymous with football-terrace hooliganism and violence. But as the decade approached its anarchic close, steel-caps found favour with the punks, whose nihilism was matched by their ferocious creativity.

As grunge emerged in America during the late 80s and 90s, steel-caps returned on the feet of riot grrls and then cyberpunks, before being picked up by fashion-forward kids in Tokyo’s Harajuku district.