Travelling back in time to the mid 1800's, a chap called Alexis Godillot was living it up as a prosperous Army Supplier. He supplied many things including tents and saddles, but is most well known for manufacturing the ankle boot called the 'Godillot'.
Alexis was born into a working-class family in 1816 in Besançon, France. He was a skillfull lad, and able to do many different jobs. After the protests following the Revolution of 1848, Alexis decided to become what would now be known as an Events Manager - an organiser of public festivals and events. This worked out well for him. In fact, he was so good at his job, that under the Second Empire, he became Chief Organiser. Part of this new job description was ensuring towns were decorated to a high enough standard to entertain visits from Napoleon III.
After all this organising and decorating, Alexis decided to further his career by opening some tanneries in the Parisian suburban town of Saint Ouen. Again, he was very good at his work, and he was soon recognised as the rather illustrious 'fournisseur officiel aux armées' -the official manufacturer of army supplies.
Godillot, being the multi-talented guy that he was, was also made the mayor of Saint Ouen.
However, he is really remembered by the famous boots he manufactured. Their huge popularity lead them to be widely known as 'les Godillots', a slang term that was fairly short-lived as it was soon transformed (from around 1865) into the slightly cruder sounding 'les godasses'.
'Godasses' is still commonly used today to describe heavy-duty ankle boots.
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