Shoes! Honestly, shoes are a never-ending love for every one of us. Raised platform shoes, athletic shoes, sneakers, and boots become a very important part of our lives. Not only do the shoes give us comfort, protection, and work but also add so many compliments to our personality.
We do wear plain socks with sneakers is so comfortable and favorite wear of all of us but ever thought why are sneakers named sneakers?
We wear shoes every day, but ever a thought crossed your mind about where this footwear evolved? Just like don shoes called over its purpose of “Determination Over Negativity, there are more facts we are all quite unaware of, about the ancient shoe industry.
Here, we share some amazing facts about shoes & heels.
1. Sneakers Were Named To Sneak
The type of shoes we all love to wear, Sneakers! Have you ever wondered why they are called sneakers? In 1839, Charles Goodyear figured out that heating rubber and adding sulfur made the shoes durable and flexible and it leads to the invention of Rubber-Soled Shoes that is sneakers. The name sneakers were given to the newly emerging shoes with rubber soles as it was a wonderful marketing idea.
As the rubber sole allows to sneak around without sound, making this a perfect wordplay. The saying “Sneak around with sneakers” perfectly describes how walking feels while wearing sneakers. Sneakers are among the shoes that everybody loves to wear because of their comfort and style.
2. Heels were For Men
We all love to wear heels but did you know that heels initially were for men? Yes! you read it right. It's quite wondering cause one thing which was previously for men becomes the hot cake for women. A Middle East shoemaker was the first e who designed the heels. The actual purpose of making heels for men was to deal with the hot sand of the desert when riding horses.
The high heels became a symbol of nobility rather than a symbol of gender and became associated with the European upper class. The King Louis XIV of France played an important role in spreading the popularity of high heels. Still, it is unclear when women adopted this trend.
3. Queen Victoria Wore Women's First Boots
In 1840, footwear master Joseph Sparkes designed the first women's boots for Queen Victoria. Of course, just like her impact on the world, her influence expanded into shoes, as well. It was quite uncomfortable and irritating to put on shoes with buttons and laces so the master Joseph Sparkes created the boots with no buttons, laces, and heels making it all comfortable for the queen to slip on and off.
The boots quickly gained popularity among women and men, and this model becomes successful. After Queen Victoria, many women started wearing boots, and that's where the style of Chelsea boots evolved from.
4. Shoe Measurement Began With Barleycorn
Did you know that shoe sizes began with barleycorn? During the Roman civilization, the shoe masters used grain to measure the foot when making sandals.
In the early 1300s, King Edward II decided to make shoe measurements with barleycorns and declared that 1 in (2.54 cm) was equivalent to the length of three barleycorns. This custom was then adopted by the Britains in the early middle ages. This method was used for measurement standards in footwear. Still, it is an official measurement unit in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
5. Salvatore Ferragamo Invented The Wedge Shoe
It will leave you wondering that, wedge heels were created with Sardinian cork by Salvatore Ferragamo. During World War II in1940s, the world was affected by the shortage of things so the master Ferragamo was unable to get steel to create high heels, he experimented by attaching the Sardinian cork to the sole of a shoe and that's how the wedge shoe was born.
Salvatore Ferragamo is highly notable for many shoe innovations especially the cork wedge heel, that we all love and wear until today.
6. Lotus Feet
It's kinda unique fashion and beauty trend in China that has varied over its long history. The Lotus feet are one of them. So basically, the small and delicate feet were considered beautiful by society. During the 10th-11th centuries, the golden lotus feet were in practice to break and bent the feet and toes of young girls so they would fit into special flowered resembled shoes.
The small feet were beauty idols in the eastern world but, unfortunately just as how it sounds scary, this practice left many of the girls in trouble and made them unable to walk well for the rest of their lives.
7. The Most Expensive Shoes Of $660 000
It's true that a pair of shoes sold for $660,000, but now it makes you curious to know which pair can cost that much. Dorothy’s iconic ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz, were worn by Judy Garland.
The original pair of ruby slippers were sold at an auction in 2000, for a whopping $660 000
8. Shoe Addiction
Buying shoes often is totally justified as the shoe addiction is real. It is scientifically proven that shoes are a collector's item and triggers the collecting spot. It means that buying new shoes stimulates a specific area in your brain's prefrontal cortex.
Women are more addicted to shoes than men. An average man can own 12 pairs of shoes estimated, while a woman can have 21 pairs of shoes. Addiction to shoes is very commonly found in women all around the world.
9. The Largest Shoe Size
The largest shoe size that has been made ever, 42, or 44(depending on the measurement) !! It's kinda huge! The largest shoe size ever belonged to Robert Wadlow.
Robert Wadlow was born with hypertrophy of the pituitary gland and wore the biggest size of shoes on record.
10. No Left or Right Feet Shoes Before 18 Century
Can you imagine the pain before this brilliant modification? It's kinda weird to get to know that we didn't have left and right shoes previously. Shoes were made to fit each foot. Since the 19th century, only par of shoe has been sold as a pair of right and left shoes.
The first pair of right- and left-footed shoes were made in Philadelphia.
Conclusion
These are some amazing facts about shoes that we all are unaware of even when we all are wearing shoes. So, the next time you wear cowboy boots or sneakers, you will get clicked in your mind how these shoes evolved from.
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