Ahead of the upcoming third series of Kit Carter's Clarks Commandos adventures, I thought it might be interesting to look at a couple of other brands. For years I've misremembered the brand of shoes that I had when I was a kid -- I've always thought they were Clarks but I queried it when I began running the Commandos strips and Lew Stringer confirmed that what I was actually remembering was the Wayfinders brand of shoe.
I've found a few Wayfinders shoe adverts and they, too, used strips to advertise themselves. Not the thrilling adventures of Kit Carter which did actually work as a serialised strip. Instead, in the summer of 1967, Wayfinders had T.N.T. Tim in a hysterical tale of how a giant fox steals a baby!
The adverts had calmed down by March 1970 when the following advert appeared for Wayfinders Moonshot shoes... and I'm pretty sure that's the type I pestered my Mum for, although I'm also pretty sure mine had the mini compass in the heel not a magnet. Not sure why as an eight-year-old kid I so desperately needed to know which way north was but that's what would have swung it for me, not some soppy "secret magnet". The rubbish they try to foist off on kids, eh? Or maybe I sneaked a compass out of a pair of Animal Tracks shoes and replaced my magnet.
While we're on the subject of shoes, here are a couple of adverts for another popular brand at the time, Wards. Their idea of marketing was to give away wall charts to boys interested in racing cars. Left me cold.
For newcomers to the Clarks Commandos advertising strips I've reordered the stories so you can follow them a little easier. Follow the links to
Series One and
Series Two. Series Three follows shortly.
I've found a few Wayfinders shoe adverts and they, too, used strips to advertise themselves. Not the thrilling adventures of Kit Carter which did actually work as a serialised strip. Instead, in the summer of 1967, Wayfinders had T.N.T. Tim in a hysterical tale of how a giant fox steals a baby!
The adverts had calmed down by March 1970 when the following advert appeared for Wayfinders Moonshot shoes... and I'm pretty sure that's the type I pestered my Mum for, although I'm also pretty sure mine had the mini compass in the heel not a magnet. Not sure why as an eight-year-old kid I so desperately needed to know which way north was but that's what would have swung it for me, not some soppy "secret magnet". The rubbish they try to foist off on kids, eh? Or maybe I sneaked a compass out of a pair of Animal Tracks shoes and replaced my magnet.
While we're on the subject of shoes, here are a couple of adverts for another popular brand at the time, Wards. Their idea of marketing was to give away wall charts to boys interested in racing cars. Left me cold.
For newcomers to the Clarks Commandos advertising strips I've reordered the stories so you can follow them a little easier. Follow the links to Series One and Series Two. Series Three follows shortly.
Yayyy!!! at last ! i found my old boots ..my clarks wayfinders :) i am now a very happy 49 year old boy . I remember the boots but couldnt remember their name or find a single picture of them anywhere and then i found your site .. fab! i had clarks commandos mostly and then polyveldts later on but the wayfinders really stuck in my memory . Cheers !!
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