Shoe Art II

You may own a pair of shoes that are several years old, but I sincerely doubt they are as old as the first pair of shoes ever found; the sandals date back as far as 8000 to 7000 BC and were found in Oregon, USA.

It is believed that evidence has been found which indicates wearing shoes began somewhere between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago. There was not much design to them; they were merely a sort of bags to protect the feet. This changed dramatically during the Tudor era, when in Europe fancy desings became status symbols for the rich.

Shoes with the sole sewn on was created around the 17th century, but there still was no difference in a left, or right foot; they were both similar. This changed slowly over time since the 1800s.

A few more historic facts concerning shoes: Turn-shoes was footwear which was common from the Middle-ages until modern shoes were developed in the Tudor era.

Patten was a wooden overshoe, used in Europe to keep the feet dry, and was already worn in the middle ages. The well known Dutch wooden shoe derived from that and is still worn today, mainly by farmers.

BTW, did you know that Espadrilles were already worn around the 14th century? Now you do; I just dropped the shoe! :-)