Hutchinson footwear, season by season
Compared to Starsky, Hutch is a shoe freak. Which means this is a long post.
This entire shoe obsession started with the notion that Hutch wears something like Earth Shoes during S1. I jumped for joy: these wellness shoes with their negative heel and generous toebox sound exactly like our health-fad-Hutch's cup of tea. Here are some pictures of the original Kalso Earth Shoes (est. 1971). There were different styles, but the distinctive features are clearly visible in these basic oxfords: the sole is thinner under the heel than under the ball of the foot, the shoe widens and widens until the pinkie toe and the toebox is square-shaped rather than rounded/pointed. You can't get bunions wearing these shoes!
But does Hutch really wear such shoes? I love digging up details of this show, so let's see! What follows are screencaps of his regular shoes, i.e. the ones that are not part of any undercover costumes - the real Hutch shoes. Some of his notorious undercover footwear (such as the "Himalayan mounted police" boots in Action) can be seen in everyday use, too, and I've included them. While it probably looks thorough, this is NOT the complete list: I only checked the episodes to see what kind of shoes he's wearing most of the time, but as Hutch is known to switch shoes for a scene or few within an ep, I have probably missed some, especially in S4.
The Pilot and Season 1
There was one big surprise for me here: the boots! Here are two different pairs we see in very famous promo photos.
The surprise was that he NEVER wore either of these in the show (WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! See the edit after the next photo!). I'd have sworn those clunky stacked-heeled boots from the legendary studio photos with flowers were the ones he wore in the pilot, but no, in the pilot and some S1 episodes (at least Death Ride and Kill Huggy Bear), he wears these neat boots with black soles and much lower heel instead.
EDIT 2018-01-28: The ones above ARE the square-toed promo boots: the toe just happened to look rounded in this screencap. Also, the very-high-heeled promo boots do make at least one appearance, in the first half of Death Notice! (Then the cleanly one changes his outfit again from top to toe; it's so funny that Starsky goes through probably half the S1 episodes in the same blue t-shirt, jeans, sneakers and windbreaker while Hutch keeps changing costumes. And Hutch wasn't even the one to take the dive in this scene! Starsky just dries off and wears the same things the next day!)
Both boots may well be Frye boots (Frye Campus boots have been mentioned by others).
I've spotted Hutch wearing three (or maybe four) pairs of low-cut brown leather shoes in S1, any of which could have sparked the Earth Shoe rumor. Unfortunately, I don't think any of these are Earth Shoes, or even imitations. Here they all are in one image:
The topmost pair, the sporty-looking brown leather sneakers, have a very clear positive heel section in the sole, and while they definitely count as ”sensible” footwear, the bottom view from The Fix shows that the shape of the toebox is quite pointed = not Earth Shoes. (These are a bit confusing, though - there might be two almost identical pairs of these: the shape of the grey/black sole is the same, they have white lining and a darker back strap (not visible in these pics), but sometimes they seem to have metal lace loops all the way down and sometimes only three loops on the top. They also appear quite different color from episode to episode, but it might be a matter of polishing. These seem to be Hutch's favorites - I haven't actually counted, but I think he wears these the most during S1.
The middle pair, the light-colored leather sneakers, are his only S1 shoes of which I could find a proper close-up (from ”Shootout”) without dedicating days to re-watching the entire season frame-by-frame. Again, they're nice, comfortable-looking casual shoes, but the sole is thicker under the heel, and they're pretty damned narrow and pointed at the toe = not Earth Shoes. This pair appears in just a couple of episodes.
The funky-looking pair in the bottom row was the one that most raised my heartbeat because of the promisingly quasi-orthopedic look, but once I got a good look at them, it's obvious that the heel is way higher than the toes. Platform sneakers = not Earth Shoes. These are probably his second-favorite shoes this season.
My conclusion is that Hutch probably never wore Earth Shoes or similar. But David Soul might have! At least, the puppies he's wearing here, at his house, around 1979, have the right shape and look.
It's a small picture and the heel isn't even visible, but the front, as well as the visible part of the sole, look to me like they could be the real thing. He wears these in a Merv Griffin episode from the same year, too, but the quality of the clip shared in the fabulous ”It's All About Soul” Facebook group is too blurry to make any definite conclusions about the heel.
Season 2
Identifying particular shoe models Hutch wears gets easier when he, like Starsky, decides to stick to brand sneakers. In S2, Hutch dons a pair of Adidas Tobaccos, and wears them almost all through S2 and S3. Some sources identify them as Adidas Gazelles, but these screencaps leave little to interpretation.
But, as I said, Hutch is a shoe freak, and there is a surprising number of guest star shoes in these later seasons.
In a few S2 episodes (e.g. Murder at Sea, Vendetta, Gillian, Starsky's Lady, Long Walk), you can spot a scene or two where Hutch wears very pretty blue-and-yellow Puma Delphin sneakers. EDIT 2019: Hutch's shoes aren't Puma Delphin; they're Puma Clyde III.
In Long Walk, he mostly wears a pair of genre-appropriate toe-killers, that is, awfully pointed cowboy boots. They might be the same ones he wore as ”Charlie honey” in Tapdancing (even there, he left them on after the undercover assignment was over).
In Nightmare and Bloodbath there are really nice ankle boots Hutch wears to court (and, in the latter, to frantically search for his partner).
I admit, I've never understood what's so wrong about wearing socks in sandals. It's comfortable! Proper ventilation without either freezing or burning your toes! No blisters! It's a pity it's been turned into the deadliest fashion sin on the planet. Well, in the tag of Velvet Jungle, Hutch is definitely guilty. Hooray for that!
Season 3
Season 3 opens with Hutch shoe galore: Playboy Island is ripe with shoes from canvas flats to golf shoes, but most of them are part of their various undercover styles, so I'm not listing them. The interesting pair there is the white Adidas with red stripes Hutch wears on their climbing expedition - given Starsky wears his regular shoes, these could be genuine Hutch shoes, not something from the atrocious Metro undercover gear stash. I can't figure out the specific model, but it's a joy to see our boys color-coordinate to perfection: shoes the color of their shorts, with details the color of their tops... Did they even realize they were doing that?
Back on the mainland, Adidas Tobaccos continue to be Hutch's favorite footwear throughout S3. However, a new pair of running shoes appears: blue-and-green Nike Roadrunners. Both times I've seen them so far (Collector, Murder One) he does indeed wear them to go running (unlike those Puma Delphins which were equally fit for a date night with Gillian, a sweaty game of tennis, and a desert race in a dune buggy).
More colorful sneakers, and an interesting thing about Satan's Witches: as we know, Hutch ridiculously overpacks for this weekend getaway with Starsky, and indeed, he can be seen wearing THREE different pairs of shoes in that episode: after wearing his trekking boots during the drive to Dobey's cabin, he suddenly switches to his Tobaccos to go grocery shopping (this was probably a bona fide continuity flub), and next day he changes into a new pair of sneakers, dark blue Nike Cortez with white details.
Worth noticing: Starsky and Hutch seem to have identical trekking boots.
I'm pretty sure Hutch took Starsky shopping for proper trekking gear. :D
Season 3 sees Hutch wearing knee-high brown boots again, first undercover in Action and then in the lovely hotel room scenes in A Body Worth Guarding. Again, it was a surprise to me that these weren't the boots from the wedding pictures - lol, I mean, the studio promos with flowers! - or even the actual Pilot/S1 boots, but a different, zip-up pair with quite a lot of heel. Yet another nondescript pair of dark boots - maybe cowboy style? - is briefly seen in the tag of Deckwatch.
I seriously want to know where Hutch stashes all these shoes! As his Venice Place apartment has limited storage facilities, I suspect he rents the next door apartment as his walk-in wardrobe. (This guy has masses and masses of clothes, too. No way he fits them all in that three-drawer dresser in the alcove and the closet by the door!)
Season 4
A new season: a new look and a new pair of shoes for Hutch. Goodbye to those wonderful suede Adidas Tobaccos! His new standard pair is Nike Cortez in light brown leather with dark brown details.
I haven't gone through S4 in much detail, because my S4 DVDs are not too eager to cooperate. There are other shoes Hutch wears there - some brown boots in the picnic tag of Avenger, at least - but there is something so special about those brown Nike Cortez that I can hardly focus on anything else now anyway.
As you know, Starsky has worn his iconic blue Adidas SL '72 out by now. My guess is that he and Hutch conducted a ritual funeral for their Adidas and went shopping together for best-buddy-Nikes to wear from here to eternity. Just how adorable is it that they end up wearing IDENTICAL shoes?
Earlier S&H shoe studies:
http://www.barbwiredesign.ca/S&H%20web/pages/clothes.html
This is a site with lots of valuable research and fun tidbits on a variety of S&H themes, although shoe-wise, there are some inaccuracies.
http://carine1978.forumgratuit.org/t123-adidas-de-hutchA French fan forum with some Hutch shoe discussion.
http://carine1978.forumgratuit.org/t37-les-adidas-de-starsky
From the same French forum: if you want to see the baby elephants under Starsky's heels, this is the thread to view! Every detail of those blue sneakers revealed!
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