@alextwma
Instagram · Talking Head Edit
@alextwma Why do these shoes have holes in them?
Trending short videosShoe history from work to fashion
The edit1 shot · 9 text
Shots Text1:56
Performance
- Views
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- Likes
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- Comments
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- Engagement
- 5.3%
- Outlier
- 1.5×
- Length · 18 Aug 2026
- 1:56
Video #46807 · Talking Head Edit
Shoe history from work to fashionfrom @alextwma
[01]
Overview
The creator explains the history of brogue shoes by first highlighting the decorative holes, then revealing their original practical purpose for drainage for Irish and Scottish farmers. The video traces the shoe's evolution from a working-class boot to a high-fashion item, crediting the Prince of Wales in the 1920s for popularizing them and concluding on the irony of their modern decorative function.
[02]
Simple outline
- 1Question a common feature
- 2Reveal surprising practical origin
- 3Narrate the status transformation
- 4Connect origin to present day
[03]
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Classification
Format
Concepts
Elements
Account
[05]
Hook analysis
What stops the scroll in the first 3 seconds
Title hook
look closely
Visual hook
A clean, close-up shot of a black brogue shoe against a white background. An animation then highlights the perforation holes in red, drawing immediate attention to the video's main subject.
[07]
Hook and payoff
The promise the opener makes, and how the video pays it back
Hook
Directs the viewer's attention to a familiar but unexplained detail on an object, creating an immediate and specific curiosity gap.
Payoff
Provides a concise, full-circle summary that explicitly connects the revealed practical origin to the object's modern form, delivering a satisfying resolution to the initial hook.
[08]
Narrative framework
The structural pattern this video runs on
Framework
The Secret History of the Mundane
To reveal the surprising, functional, and often low-status origin of a common, modern, and often high-status object or feature, tracing its transformation through a key historical turning point.
- 1
The Contextual Reframe
Debunks the viewer's common assumption about the feature's purpose and repositions the object in its original, often utilitarian, historical context.
- 2
The Functional Reveal
Delivers the 'aha' moment by explaining the feature's original, practical function, directly solving the initial mystery.
- 3
The Status Baseline
Establishes the object's original, often low-status, identity, creating a strong contrast with its modern perception and setting the stage for a dramatic shift.
- 4
The Great Inversion
Introduces a specific historical pivot, often an influential figure or event, that catalyzed the object's transformation from utilitarian to fashionable, flipping its social status.
Themes
Techniques
Trends
Post caption
Why do these shoes have holes in them?
Text overlays
informational · beginning
look closely at these shoes.
informational · beginning
Notice the holes punched everywhere.
informational · beginning
The style is called 'Broguing' and the shoe traces its origins back to Ireland and Scotland.
informational · middle
Long before they were dress shoes, they were actually work boots for farmers and laborers crossing the wet countryside.
informational · middle
And the story everyone tells is that the holes were for drainage.
informational · middle
But in the 1920s, everything flipped.
informational · end
The Prince of Wales started wearing them on the golf course, and suddenly the humble shoe of the Irish bog worker was aristocratic
informational · end
Two tone versions, called spectators, became a Jazz age staple.
informational · end
the exact holes that were once used to let water out of a farmer's boot