A shoe is an object intended to protect and comfort the human foot. It is usually worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as decorative and fashion items.
Shoe design has changed over time and from culture to culture, with form initially associated with functionality. Although the human foot can adapt to a variety of terrain and climate conditions, it is still vulnerable to environmental hazards, such as sharp rocks and extreme temperatures, from which shoes protect. Some shoes are worn as safety equipment, such as steel-toed boots, which are essential footwear on industrial construction sites.
In addition, fashion has often dictated many design elements, such as whether shoes have very high heels or very low (flat). Modern footwear varies greatly in style, sophistication, and cost. Sandals typically consist of a thin sole and a simple strap and are sold at a low cost. High-fashion shoes made by famous designers may be made of expensive materials, use intricate construction, and sell for large sums of money. Some shoes are designed for specific purposes, such as boots designed specifically for mountaineering or skiing, while others have a more generalized use, such as sneakers, which have evolved from a specialized athletic shoe to a general-purpose shoe.
Traditionally, shoes are made of leather, wood, or fabric, but increasingly they are made of rubber, plastics, and other materials derived from petrochemicals. Globally, the footwear industry is a $200 billion-a-year industry.
90% of shoes end up in landfills because the materials are difficult to separate, recycle or otherwise reuse.
But let's take the story from the beginning...
Seniority
America
The oldest known shoes are sage bark sandals dating from about 7000 or 8000 BC, found in Fort Rock Cave in the US state of Oregon in 1938. The oldest leather shoe, made from a single piece of animal skin, tied with a leather cord with stitching along the front and back, was found in the Areni-1 cave complex in Armenia in 2008 and is believed to date to 3500 BC. Ötzi the Iceman's shoes, dated to 3300 BC, featured brown bearskin soles, deerskin side panels, and a bark net, which was pulled tightly around the foot. The Jotunheimen shoe was discovered in August 2006: archaeologists estimate that this leather shoe was made between 1800 and 1100 BC, making it the oldest item of clothing discovered in Scandinavia.
It is believed that shoes may have been used long before this, but because the materials used were extremely fragile, it is difficult to find evidence of the earliest footwear. Studying the bones of the little toes (as opposed to the big toe), it was observed that their thickness decreased approximately 40,000 to 26,000 years ago. This led scholars to conclude that the use of shoes resulted in less bone growth, resulting in smaller, thinner toes. These early designs were very simple, often simple leather "foot bags" to protect the feet from rocks, debris, and cold.
Many early Native Americans in North America wore a similar type of footwear, known as moccasins . These shoes were close-fitting, with soft soles, usually made of leather. Many moccasins were also decorated with various beads and other embellishments. Moccasins were designed to be waterproof, and in wet weather, during the hot summer months, most Native Americans went barefoot. The leaves of the sisal plant were used to make sponges for sandals in South America, while the natives of Mexico used the Yucca plant.
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