Factory-made uniforms and boots often arrived defective or unusable

Evidence

The cloth factories also very often produced defective uniforms and Ibrahim Pasha repeatedly complained to Edhem Bey, the Inspector of Munitions, about the quality of uniforms supplied to the army and told him that “military matters are not to be compared to other matters.” The quality of footwear was another matter about which Ibrahim complained. In a certain incident 10,000 pairs of shoes were made in Egypt and promptly sent to the army in Syria only for it to be discovered that they were all so small as to fit only children’s feet! — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 941

Categorization

• CANDY: A compulsively shareable absurd detail: 10,000 shoes sized for children.