We happened across an incredibly large stockpile of the cotton canvas khaki leggings many years ago and bought them all.

Sizes available are 1 or 3. We at first thought that 3 was rather small and size 1 even smaller. However, that was before we realized that you do not wear them over an existing boot. Rather they become a way of turning a high-top leather shoe into a make-shift boot.

Made of durable canvas, the leg protectors offer guard against bugs, plants, rough terrain, snakes, and other annoying critters that can leave a soldier stranded with a foot or leg injury.

Dawning the leggings can seem quite daunting if you haven’t seen the procedure before. First, you lace the string back and through all the holes on one side of the spat. Tying the top and bottom off and leaving enough slack to pull each spaced string across the opposite hook on the other side of the leggings. In this way you can take them off and put them back on easily without having to pull the strings out of the holes like you would with a traditional shoe or boot.

For the WW1 or WW2 reenactor the legging is one of the iconic clues to the time period of an army ground troops uniform and is recognized the world over as classic to the look of a doughboy or WW2 soldier.