Footwear Facts
Sandals originated in warm climates where the soles of the feet needed protection but the top of the foot needed to be cool.- 4,000 years ago the first shoes were made of a single piece of rawhide that enveloped the foot for both warmth and protection.
- In Europe pointed toes on shoes were fashionable from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries.
- In the Middle East heels were added to shoes to lift the foot from the burning sand.
- In Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored red.
- Shoes all over the world were identical until the nineteenth century, when left- and right-footed shoes were first made in Philadelphia.
- In Europe it wasn't until the eighteenth century that women's shoes were different from men's.
- Six-inch-high heels were worn by the upper classes in seventeenth-century Europe. Two servants, one on either side, were needed to hold up the person wearing the high heels.
Sneakers were first made in America in 1916. They were originally called keds.- Boots were first worn in cold, mountainous regions and hot, sandy deserts where horse-riding communities lived. Heels on boots kept feet secure in the stirrups.
- The first lady's boot was designed for Queen Victoria in 1840.
