Wood you believe the size of these shoes!?
Measuring 3.5 m (11 ft 5 in) long, 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) wide, and 1.48 m (4 ft 10 in) tall, they are the world’s largest clogs / wooden shoes.
That's bigger than a standard yellow school bus!
The record, which was achieved by Jim Bolin of Casey, Illinois, USA, stomped into the record books on 20 October 2015.
The clogs, which weigh over 1,500 pounds each, took an entire year to create.
Made from pine wood, each shoe was shaped and carved using a chainsaw.
“Using a small wooden shoe, we glued wood together to scale up to a giant cube of wood,” said Jim.
We then used the chainsaw to carve out a large copy of the wooden shoe.
After making one shoe, Jim then repeated the process for the second shoe, making sure to keep it in proportion to the first.
Jim, who loves working with wood, was inspired to create the world’s largest wooden shoes to challenge his engineering and chainsaw skills.
Seeing the beauty of the wood in the shape of a shoe, it shows a lot of different wood grain patterns in the sculpture.
Jim was also motivated to create the clogs because a small town nearby, Teutopolis, uses wooden shoes as their mascot.
The project took Jim much longer to complete than he originally anticipated.
Because of their sheer size, plenty of space, materials, and time were required to create the shoes.
Jim says the most challenging part of creating the wooden clogs was getting both shoes to match in size and appearance.
However, he says the joy of adding an additional Guinness World Records title to his growing list for travellers to stop and see was worth all the hard work.
“Many folks like to touch and feel the shoes and are in awe of their size,” said Jim.
Several throw change into them as if they were a wishing well.
For several years, that money was donated to a local food pantry.
Other tourists instead use the wooden shoes as a photo op.
“The travel channel from China loved the shoes so much they had several folks get into one shoe to see how many people could fit,” said Jim.
“I don’t recall the final number, but it was around 12.”
The shoes are covered in a clear coat to protect the wood and are currently sitting at a store called Wildflour Bakery & Candy Company, located in Casey, Illinois.
Jim holds multiple super-sized records, including:
- Largest windchime: Measuring 12.80 m (42 ft) long and consisting of five metal tubes that were suspended 14.94 m (49 ft) from the ground.
- Largest rocking chair: Measuring 17.09 m (56 ft 1 in) tall and 9.99 m (32 ft 10 in) wide.
- Largest mailbox: Measuring 162.63 m³ (5,743.41 ft³)
- Largest key: Measuring 8.58 m (28 ft 1 in) by 3.47 m (11 ft 4 in).
- Longest seesaw / teeter totter: Measuring 25.01 m (82 ft).
- Largest bar / swizzle spoon: Measuring 3.569 m (11 ft 8 in) by 0.338 m (1 ft 1 in).
- Largest golf club: Measuring 13.957 m (45 ft 9.4 in) long.
- Largest golf tee: Measuring 9.37 m (30 ft 9 in) long with a head diameter of 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) and a shaft width of 64 cm (2 ft 1 in).
- Largest gavel: Measuring 5.090 m (16 ft 8 in) by 1.548 m (5 ft 1 in).
- Largest pitchfork: Measuring 18.65 m (61 ft 1 in) long and 2.56 m (8 ft 5 in) wide.
- Largest barber’s pole: Measuring 4.46 m (14 ft 7 in).
He says his record-breaking attractions have helped build what he has coined as “Casey’s Big Things in a Small Town Tourism.”
Next, he would like to create the world’s largest fishing pole and is currently carving up an idea for 2025.
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