THEN

When you consider how the bowel package was harvested in the past, shoes are not the first thing that come to mind. The differences between then and now are  significant, however, when it comes to footwear. A few decades ago, employees in our facility in Sommelsdijk (Netherlands) wore wooden shoes. They were issued by the company. Wooden shoes were safe, and your feet remained dry because of the long apron used to cover the wooden shoes. When Van Hessen started working in China, there were only floppy boots available that offered no support to the worker’s feet. That was already an improvement over the cotton fabric, Chinese workers in gutrooms used to wear in the 50s and 60s. Sadly, the floppy boots were too small for the Dutch employees. Johan Domela, who started as a trainee in China 25 years ago,  remembers how he cut off the toes of these boots to be able to walk around.

NOW

The boots with cut-off toes were far from ideal, of course. Van Hessen then started importing boots from the Netherlands. These were a good fit for the Dutch employees, but water still ran into the boots because the aprons were too short. That’s why the Dutch employees tied a second apron around their waist until aprons, too, were imported from The Netherlands. Today, the facilities of Van Hessen must adhere to strict regulations to guarantee that employees work safely and comfortably. The boots in use today are ergonomic and have special soles. You can easily stand on them for 8 hours straight. The boots reach to just below the knee, higher than the aprons.  According to the regulations, footwear must be slip-resistant. They also need to be water-resistant, while at the same time the material needs to breathe. A steel nose is required as well. Soggy feet and cut-off toes are forever a thing of the past.