wing tips

Trivia for the day. As a suit-wearing member of the work force I occasionally wear wing tip shoes. It occurred to me today that I had no idea why they are called that. Well here's the answer. It's because of the shape of the leather part of the shoe that is perforated with a design. If looked at from toe to heel (see the graphic), this part of the shoe looks like a bird with its wings outstretched and up. As to why it's not called the bird shoe I can only offer a guess - it sounds kind of stupid.