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Brogues, often known as wingtips in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, are low-heeled shoes
Dress shoe

A dress shoe is a shoe to be worn at smart casual or dress code events. A dress shoe is typically contrasted to an athletic shoe.Dress shoes are worn by many as their standard daily shoes, and are widely used in dance, for parties, and for special occasions....
 made of heavy leather
Leather

Leather is a material created through the tanning of rawhides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses....
, originating in Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 and Ireland
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
 as a coarse, usually untanned
Tanning

Tanning is the process of making leather, which does not easily Decomposition, from the skins of animals, which do. Often this uses tannin, an acidic chemical compound....
 leather shoe. The term wingtip derives from the toe cap pattern, which forms a W and resembles the profile of spreading bird wings. The distinction must be drawn between brogues and brogueing. Brogueing refers to punched patterns along the seams and outer layers of the shoe uppers, while a brogue is not only a fully-punched shoe, but also has Derby
Derby shoe

A Derby shoe is a style of leather shoe with open lacing. The tongue of the shoe is made with the same piece of leather as the vamp, and the facings with the lacing holes meet together over the tongue, and are not stitched to the tongue at the bottom....
 (open) lacing.






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Brogues, often known as wingtips in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, are low-heeled shoes
Dress shoe

A dress shoe is a shoe to be worn at smart casual or dress code events. A dress shoe is typically contrasted to an athletic shoe.Dress shoes are worn by many as their standard daily shoes, and are widely used in dance, for parties, and for special occasions....
 made of heavy leather
Leather

Leather is a material created through the tanning of rawhides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses....
, originating in Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 and Ireland
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
 as a coarse, usually untanned
Tanning

Tanning is the process of making leather, which does not easily Decomposition, from the skins of animals, which do. Often this uses tannin, an acidic chemical compound....
 leather shoe. The term wingtip derives from the toe cap pattern, which forms a W and resembles the profile of spreading bird wings. The distinction must be drawn between brogues and brogueing. Brogueing refers to punched patterns along the seams and outer layers of the shoe uppers, while a brogue is not only a fully-punched shoe, but also has Derby
Derby shoe

A Derby shoe is a style of leather shoe with open lacing. The tongue of the shoe is made with the same piece of leather as the vamp, and the facings with the lacing holes meet together over the tongue, and are not stitched to the tongue at the bottom....
 (open) lacing. Note that the terms full brogue and half brogue do not necessarily refer to brogues in the traditional sense just defined, but instead to the degree of broguing on the shoe, allowing for example full brogue shoes with closed (not open) lacing, as pictured opposite.

Brogues proper are traditional men's country shoes, less formal than even brogued Oxford shoes, or shoes with less than full broguing. As outdoor shoes, they are normally made in brown and are not traditionally worn in town (though the more formal Oxford laced shoe is commonly made in black even when fully brogued, and is now worn in town).

Brogueing itself, the punching which forms the patterns in the shoes, has its origin in the boglands common in Scotland and Ireland; the wearers had to step in and out of bogs all day and needed a shoe that would allow good drainage. Today brogueing is used to emphasise the seams that define the design of a shoe. This punching occurs in various patterns: full brogues, or wingtips (the term applies strictly only to full brogues), have a toe cap in the W shape, with punched patterns on various sections of the shoe, such as the heel counter; half brogues have a normal straight-edged toe cap and less punching; finally, other terms such as quarter-brogue and so on may be used to describe progressively less brogueing. Brogueing is normally only applied to laced shoes, typically Oxfords or Derbys, but may sometimes by used on loafers or women's shoes.

Ghillie Brogues, or Ghillies, are another type of shoe with laces along the instep and no tongue, especially used for Scottish country dancing. Although now primarily worn for dancing and social events, Ghillies originated as a shoe that would drain water and dry quickly due to the lack of a tongue, and not get stuck in the mud because the laces were above the ankle.

The word brogue is derived from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic
Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic languages of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people....
 word bróg, meaning shoe; the plural is brňgan (Scots Gaelic) or "bróga" (Irish). The term brogue survived in American English
American English

PhonologyIn many ways, compared to English language in England, North American English is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast of the United States , partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties we...
 as the term Brogans in Appalachia
Appalachia

Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the Eastern United States United States that stretches from southern New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia ....
n and southern United States
Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States....
 dialects. The word ghillie
Gillie

Ghillie or gillie is a Scottish dialect term that refers to a man or a boy who acts as an attendant on a fishing, fly fishing or a hunting or deer stalking expedition, primarily in Scotland in the Scottish Highlands or on a river such as the Spey River....
 comes from gille (Scots Gaelic) (Ir. giolla) meaning a "lad" or a "servant".

Footnotes