Did your shoe store have an X-ray machine for your feet?

[Geezerette]

The Buster Brown ad in another post reminded me of how when I was a kid, shoe stores had an X-ray machine that kids stood on & put their feet in, to see if there was enough room for growing toes. I loved to see my toes wiggle in my new plain brown oxfords. I think it was finally decided that so much radiation wasn’t good for one.

 

[Ceege]

Yes. In Marine City, Michigan. I was in the 4th grade and had that done one time when getting new shoes for school.

 

[hollydolly]

No, not ours

 

[Lewkat]

Yes it did. It was a fluoroscopic machine and it would intrigue me each time my mom took me for new shoes. We got perfect fits all the time. Not too healthy though.

 

[FastTrax]

www.theuntoldhistory.com/2017/09/13/the-foot-o-scope/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe-fitting_fluoroscope

 

[Devi]

Huh. Never heard of it!

 

[Pepper]

Yes! Me and my friends would go to the store to put our bare feet (or did we wear shoes) into this machine & you saw your feet bones! Loved seeing that.

It's a good thing it's not around any more. Too much x ray bad

 

[Geezerette]

Fastrax, thanks for the great pictures!

 

[Damaged Goods]

I never even heard of them prior to reading internet posts.

 

[tbeltrans]

Cool! My feet glow in the dark!

Tony

 

[Tish]

Our sports store did.

 

[FastTrax]

Fastrax, thanks for the great pictures!

Always a pleasure Geezerette, always a pleasure.

 

[Pink Biz]

Yes! I thought it was the neatest thing.

 

[RiverM55]

Never saw those growin up. All we got now is those little things at the stores that look like scales. Your step on and it figures out all your bad spots and customizes a shoe insert for you.

 

[Jules]

Yes, my mother rarely let me get my feet checked. She never gave a reason. Just, no.

 

[Rosemarie]

Yes, I always wore Clarks shoes and they had an x-ray machine.

 

[Mahatma]

in our Clarks they had a wooden measure for width and length

 

[fuzzybuddy]

Yeah, when I was a kid. My mom would take me to Buster Brown's. You would put on a new pair, and get zapped. Supposedly you could see how well the bones fit into your shoes. I guess saying that your shoes felt OK, wasn't good enough. Those machines and Buster Brown are long gone. And his dog, Tige (?), too.

 

[OldEnough]

I had never seen one until this thread.

 

[Fyrefox]

I can remember such machines, although they were not in every shoe store...and of course, an actual human attendant would come out, often measure your feet, and fetch you a box containing shoes in the style you specified, and the size indicated! Today, "dedicated," full-service shoe stores are rare, and customers are left alone to fetch their own shoe boxes off racks in large stores, unassisted...

 

[twinkles]

yes i remember buster brown and getting my feet xrayed

 

[DaveA]

I think I used them a couple times when I was kid. Back in the late 30's - 40's. Have no idea when I saw the last of them in shoe stores?

 

[Aunt Marg]

Not one of ours did, and as embarrassing as it is for me to say, until I happened across this thread, I had never before heard of a foot x-ray machine before used by shoe stores back in the day.

 

[drifter]

Never knew of one till now.