Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Yellow Triangles Prove Nothing

This marking on the boots of both riot police and faux protesters at the Montebello summit is the trademark of "Vibram", an Italian company that produces rubber outsoles for footwear. They appear on the Matterhorn assault boot pictured left as well on many other makes and models. So the "protesters" and police are not necessarily wearing the same boot.
Update: BeneD has found a few other possibilities for the boot-bottom logo. IMHO, though, the blow up (link from "this marking") shows something roundish, not triangular--more like the Vibram TM.
Update: Here's a shot that shows both cop and protester boots side-by-side. The only thing is, Vibram makes about dozens of different sole-types that then get slapped on different boots. For example, the one in the picture looks most like their 109 Logger or 134AR Technical Lug, which are both fire/police models. So, again, it could be a case of different boots but the same sole.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Help yourself to the ANSI logos at my blog. To be honest the blowups of the shoes are blurry, about all I can tell is they are yellow and you are correct, in and of itself, it doesn't prove much.

If the yellow is the ANSI symbol - what - RCMP, OPP and Surette buy from US suppliers?;^)

BD

Dr.Dawg said...

Can we have the link, please?

bigcitylib said...

Bene,

The actual blow of picture of the boots (linked from "this marking") makes it look round, not triangular.

And the link to BD is

http://www.benedictionblogson.com/?p=3349

Anonymous said...

that protest was the most pathetic event ever, totally lame.

No wonder they need to come up with whack conspiracy theories to smokescreen their utter failure at being good little middle class anarchists.

Anonymous said...

Hey,

Long time reader and fan…

Have you seen this video yet? It’s so bizarre and I’m not sure if it’s legit. I know this is up your alley….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtc1MG9bDrg

The website seems just as bizarre.

-Will

Anonymous said...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2962268&mesg_id=2962596

check out this picture. You can see even the tread patterns are the same.

bigcitylib said...

Anon 1:01:

It shows an identical sole, not necessarily an identical boot. Vibram is specially designed to be "non-slip", so perhaps they use the same pattern in all their boots.

Not that I think the protesters were legit; I just don't think the boots give em away as cops.

Anonymous said...

I got yellow triangles on a set of boots, too. Does that make me an agent provocateur?

Red Tory said...

I don't think this is just going to go quietly away as much as all the anony-retards and BT dipshits might want it to.

Anonymous said...

Nice catch BCL.

Now we wait.
These three were 'arrested,' out of seven we know what happened to the two men and two women.

This isn't about "utter failure at being good little middle class anarchists."

Hopefully some people following this story will begin to understand that.

Really, good catch.
Blog on!

BD

Anonymous said...

tee hee!
get a life guys...
kool-aid drinker

Anonymous said...

I'm quite sure those are vibram marks, which is the mark of the sole maker. Vibram soles are used on different brands of boots. My own Rockport boots have them, and they are basically light hiking boots. They have the yellow vibram mark inside a dark red square that is a Rockport mark.

Boots with vibram soles have been common in Calgary for decades, maybe because of the mountains being so close. I'm pretty sure the heavy hiking boots I had back in the 1970s had Vibram soles.

Anonymous said...

The boots are a red herring, but behaviour of the three men in the video is suspicious; just compare them with their big dark bandannas covering their faces to all the ordinary looking protestors with uncovered faces and regular clothes. And what's with the duck tape one of the three has on his legs and shoes, and the knee pads?

bigcitylib said...

Holly,

The other thing is the treads. All the treads visible look like they come from some variety of vibram-soled police/military boot. Of course, if these guys were honest to god anarchist protester types, it wouldn't surprise me if they were partial to some kind of cop/military style boot. So maybe a coincidence..?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I wouldn't lean on the tread pattern as meaning much. Maybe such boots are available at army surplus stores? Two of them are wearing camouflage pants, after all.

I mean, it is quite possible that they are policemen wearing police boots. Maybe the guy with the duck tape also coloured his boots, or whatever caused that yellow stripe around the side of them, in order to disguise the boots. But that is not the only possible explanation for the boots. Maybe he has a hole in his boots. I use duck tape on mine to keep the snow out of the hole.

It's their behaviour that people need to focus on.

Dr.Dawg said...

The cops are now saying they didn't lay charges...

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2007/08/22/ot-police-070822.html

Worth reading the comments of my ol' buddy Doug Kirkland in this piece, too.

RossK said...

I agree with Holly - don't get caught up in the kerning....errrr...triangles.

The CEP held a presser and said they have 'proof'.

StageLeft was there and says it was good....he will post this evening he says.

.

Oldschool said...

Charlie Sheen is in the building . . . . . or is it Charlie Dion???

Anonymous said...

Why so bitchy ti-guy, did somebody light your fuse?

Ti-Guy said...

No. I'm always like this. Anony-tards are irritating. You know that...that's why you troll anonymously.

...now put the hair-net on and get back to work.

Anonymous said...

"...now put the hair-net on and get back to work"

Good come back commie.

Anonymous said...

Sorry...I retract that last comment. I'm high on meth and out of control again.

Anonymous said...

I have to admit that, having read a lot of further argument, and seen better pictures, I'm finding the matching treads argument more convincing than I did at first. The vibram logo/yellow triangle issue was a red herring; but having the same treads on at least two protesters' boots and the cop's boot is more meaningful; along, of course, with their behaviour, their non-arrest (or removal to Gitmo?) etc.

I get the idea from the Kos thread that maybe we should be invoking habeus corpus to have those three protesters produced.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/22/12151/8595

bigcitylib said...

Holly,

Yeah, so am I. Plus I've seen the youtube video with sound now and it sure looks like three cops trying to act like radicals. But then, how could the police be so stupid to send out a bunch of fake protesters in cop boots?

Anonymous said...

Like most perps, they didn't expect to get caught? :)

Look at the Alberta EUB:

"The way we found these guys out is almost comical. We only had a bunch of grandmothers there and the big 250-pound guy in the middle eating all the cookies was the ex-RCMP cop."

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/08/17/eub-docs.html

Anonymous said...

There is no possiblity that three black bloc protestors would all be wearing the same boots side by side, with exactly the same amount of wear, and all get accused of being cops and all get arrested very gently and all say nothing. None. It doesn't even matter if they are the same boots as the cops, which they are. The black bloc arent school girls who go to the mall shopping before protests and pick out matching outfits.

Anonymous said...

Hentai-guy. So frustrated, so angry and bitter. So blinded by hatred and ideology. Are you Stephane Dion in real life?

Christian Conservative said...

For what it's worth, I do think there was something fishy here, that perhaps they were cops... I have no problem with that, unless of course they were trying to incite violence.

Based on the tapes I've seen, I don't think there's enough evidence to suggest that they were leading things, just perhaps following and trying to blend in. (hence the rock)

Ti-Guy said...

Are you Stephane Dion in real life?

Ask your mother. She's knows who I am...