footwear

Footwear has been used by humans since prehistoric times, with paleoclimatology suggesting that they would have been needed in some areas of human settlement by at least 50,000{{nbsp}}years ago during the Last Glacial Period. Osteologists have found evidence of the effect of footwear on human remains by around 40,000{{nbsp}}years ago.{{citation |last=Lewis |first=Robert |contribution=Shoes |title=Official site |contribution-url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/shoe |url=https://www.britannica.com |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |location=Chicago |date=2022 }}. The oldest shoes so far recovered were found by a team under Luther Cressman in Fort Rock Cave, Oregon, US, in 1938. They had been preserved under the Mazama Ash deposited {{c.|5025 BC}} during the volcanic eruption that formed Crater Lake.{{citation |last=Connolly |first=Tom |url=https://pages.uoregon.edu/connolly/FRsandals.htm |title=The World's Oldest Shoes |date=11 January 2016 |publisher=University of Oregon |location=Eugene }}. In 1999, they were dated to around 10,500{{ndash}}{{nowrap|9,300 BP.}}{{citation |last= |first= |contribution-url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19991201/2998668/worlds-oldest-shoes-in-oregon |contribution=World's Oldest Shoes in Oregon... |date=1 December 1999 |title=The Seattle Times |publisher= |location=Seattle }}.

File:Fort Rock Sandals OHS.jpg | The Fort Rock sagebrush sandals from the United States ({{c.|7300 BC}})

File:Sandalias de esparto (29139609730).jpg | Neolithic esparto sandals from Spain ({{c.|5000 BC}})

File:Chalcolithic leather shoe from Areni-1 cave.jpg | The Areni-1 shoe from Armenia ({{c.|3500 BC}})

File:Ötzischuh 2.jpg | Ötzi's shoe, made from bearskin, deer hide, and tree bark ({{c.|3200 BC}})

File:FootClothFromFinnishDefenceForces.JPG | Footwraps were the common undershoe until the industrial era (2006)

Egyptian butchers sometimes wore platform sandals with thicker soles than usual to raise their feet out of the gore. Wealthier Egyptians also sometimes wore platforms.{{citation |last=Jones |first=Kirtly |title=High Heels' Damage to the Human Foot |url=https://healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/shows.php?shows=0_yg0o2jx3 |publisher=University of Utah, College of Health Care |location=Salt Lake City |date=7 January 2016 }}.{{citation |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8688381 |title=High Heels |first=Per |last=Mollerup |date=30 September 2019 |publisher=MIT Press |pages=76–77 |isbn=9780262351577 |via=IEEE Xplore }}. The Greeks distinguished a great variety of footwear, particularly different styles of sandals. The heeled cothurnus was part of the standard costume for tragedians, and the effeminate soccus for comedians. Going barefoot, however, was frequently lauded: Spartan boys undergoing military training, Socrates,{{citation |last=Nails |first=Debra |date=2022 |author2=S. Sara Monoson |display-authors=1 |contribution-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/ |url=https://plato.stanford.edu |title=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |contribution=Socrates |publisher=Stanford University |location=Stanford }}. and Olympic athletes{{cite news|title=Unearthing the First Spartan Boys where not allowed to wear shoes to toughen their feet and allow stronger dexterity in their toes Olympics|url=https://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2004/jul/nemea/|access-date=July 1, 2010 |publisher=NPR|date=July 19, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100728000414/http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2004/jul/nemea/|archive-date=July 28, 2010|url-status=dead}} all went without shoes most of the time. Similarly, ancient China considered footwear an important aspect of civilization{{mdash}}particularly embroidered slippers{{mdash}}but often depicted Taoist immortals and gods like Xuanwu barefoot. The Book of Exodus records Moses reverentially removing his shoes at Mount Sinai and the priests likewise went barefoot at the Temple of Solomon before Babylonian customs prevailed and entering houses of worship in footwear became common in Judaism{{citation |last=Golinkin |first=David |date=13 August 2020 |url=https://schechter.edu |contribution-url=https://schechter.edu/responsa_barefoot-prayer/ |title=Official site |contribution=Is It Permissible to Pray Barefoot? |publisher=Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies |location=Tel Aviv }}.{{citation |last=Jastrow |first=Morris Jr. |author2=W. Max Muller |author3=Marcus Jastrow |author4=Kaufmann Kohler |display-authors=1 |contribution-url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2519-barefoot |contribution=Barefoot |title=Jewish Encyclopedia |date=1906 |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls |location=New York }}. and Christianity.

File:Egyptian sandals.jpg | Egyptian sandals ({{c.|2500 BC}} to {{c.|500 BC}})

File:Bronsealderskoen.jpg | The Jotunheimen shoe from Norway ({{c.|1800{{ndash}}1100 BC}})

East Greek plastic aryballos - left foot wearing sandal - London BM 1928-0218-1.jpg | Greek aryballos of a sandaled foot ({{c.|500 BC}})

File:Terracotta aryballoi in the form of sandaled feet Rhodian mid-6th century (553470032).jpg | Rhodian aryballos of a shod foot ({{c.|500 BC}})

File:Attributed to Dierick Bouts the Elder, Netherlandish (active Louvain), first securely documented 1447, died 1475 - Moses and the Burning Bush, with Moses Removing His Shoes - Google Art Project.jpg | Moses removing his shoes at Sinai ({{c.|1465}})

The Etruscans experienced several footwear trends, including the prominently pointed shoe or boot now known as the calceus repandus.{{citation |last=Bonfante |first=Larissa |author-link=Larissa Bonfante |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CILWtN-fSG8C |title=Etruscan Dress |date=1975 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |location=Baltimore |page=61 |isbn=9780801874130 }}. The Romans saw clothing and footwear as unmistakable signs of power and status in society. Patricians typically wore dyed and ornamented shoes of tanned leather with their togas or armor, while plebeians wore rawhide or hobnail boots{{citation |last=Purser |first=Louis Claude |author-link=Louis Claude Purser |display-editors=0 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=William |editor-link=William Smith (antiquary) |date=1890 |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities |location=London |publisher=William Wayte |contribution-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:entry=calceus-cn |contribution=Calceus }}. and slaves were usually required to be barefoot.{{cite book|last=DeMello|first=Margo|title=Feet and footwear: a cultural encyclopedia|url={{GBurl|id=5QdKSxajwP0C|p=65}}|access-date=29 January 2012|date=1 September 2009|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-313-35714-5|pages=65–}} These class distinctions in footwear seem to have lessened during the imperial period, however, as the emperors appropriated more and more symbols of high status for themselves.{{citation |last=Talbert |first=Richard John Alexander |author-link=Richard J.A. Talbert |title=The Senate of Imperial Rome |date=1984 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton }}.{{citation |last=Chin |first=Lily |contribution-url=http://cache.boston.com/news/packages/krt/millennium/html/p_shoes.htm |contribution=Shoes |url= |title=Millennium Web Package |publisher=Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services |location=San Jose |date=1999 }}. The Romans were the earliest people currently known to have shaped their right and left shoes distinctly during creation, rather than pulling them tight and allowing them to wear into shape. The Catholic patron saints of shoemaking{{mdash}}Crispin and Crispinian{{mdash}}were martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution.{{citation |last=Meier |first=Gabriel |contribution=Sts. Crispin and Crispinian |contribution-url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04491a.htm |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |volume=4 |publisher=Robert Appleton Co. |location=New York |date=1908 }}.

File:Schoes of Damendorf-Man.jpg | The carbatina of the bog body Damendorf Man ({{c.|300 BC}})

File:Bronze statue of the Roman emperor Tiberius with head veiled (capite velato) preparing to perform a religious rite found in the theater in Herculaneum 37 CE MANN INV 5615 MH (cropped to calcei, boots).jpg | Patrician calceus on the feet of the Emperor Tiberius ({{c.|37}})

File:Bottom of a statue of a Roman soldier, he wears a military tunic and caligae, the typical footwear worn by Roman soldiers, early Imperial period, from the Horti Lamiani, Musei Capitolini, Rome (16379351102).jpg | Caligae, the hobnailed sandal-boot of Roman legionaries (1st cent.)

File:Périgueux Vesunna Museum - Bronze 1 Calceus.jpg | Equestrian calceus from a Roman statue in France

File:Crispino e Crispiniano.jpg | Crispin and Crispinian in an Italian print (18th cent.)

In medieval Europe, leather shoes and boots became more common. At first most were simply pieces of leather sewn together and then held tight around the foot with a toggle or drawstring. This developed into the turnshoe, where the sole and upper were sewn together and then turned inside-out to hide and protect the seam and improve water resistance. From the reign of Charlemagne, Byzantine fashions began to influence the west and the pontificalia of the popes and other bishops began to feature greater luxury, including embroidered silk and velvet slippers. By the High Middle Ages, fashion trends periodically prompted sumptuary taxes or regulations and church condemnation for vanity. The 12th-century pigache and 14th- and 15th-century poulaine had elongated toes, often stuffed to maintain their shape. Around the same time, several mendicant orders began practicing discalceation as an aspect of their vows of humility and poverty, going entirely barefoot at all times or only wearing sandals in any weather. From the 1480s, the poulaine was replaced by the duckbill, which had a flat front but soon became impractically wide. The stiff hose of the era usually required fairly soft footwear, which in turn was easier to damage in the dirt and muck of the street and outdoors. This led many people to use wooden-soled calopedes, pattens, or galoshes, overshoes that served as a platform while walking.{{cite web|title=Dangerous Elegance: A History of High-Heeled Shoes|url=http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/036heels.html|access-date=July 1, 2010}} Particularly in Venice, these platforms were combined with the shoe to make chopines, sometimes so awkwardly high that the wearer required servants to help support them. (Turkish sources, meanwhile, credit the chopines directly to the nalins worn in Ottoman baths and whose height was considered to be a marker of status.){{Citation |last=Ergil |first=Leyla Yvonne |contribution=Magic Slippers: Tales of the Turkish 'Terlik' |date=11 August 2017 |title=The Daily Sabah |publisher= |location= |contribution-url=https://www.dailysabah.com/expat-corner/2017/08/11/magic-slippers-tales-of-the-turkish-terlik }}.

File:Byzantine - Pair of Shoes - Walters 73140, 73141.jpg | Byzantine Egyptian slippers decorated in gold (6th cent.)

File:Recreated medieval shoe in the making.jpg | Medieval turnshoes being made on modern lasts (2016)

File:Blason ville fr Poulaines (Indre).svg | The arms of Poulaines, a French village named for the long-toed medieval shoe

File:HJRK A 62 - Armoured shoes of Maximilian I, 1485.jpg | The sabatons of Emperor {{nowrap|Maximilian I}}, done in the poulaine style (1485)

File:Duckbills in Hans Holbein's Ambassadors.jpg | The French ambassador's duckbill shoes in Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533)

File:German Tudor sabatons and greaves, possibly worn by a Lanzichenecchi official, 16th century - Bata Shoe Museum - DSC00108.JPG | German sabatons done in the duckbill style (16th cent.)

File:Shoemuseum Lausanne-IMG 7291.JPG | Modern reconstruction of a Venetian chopine from the 16th cent.

By the early modern period, the development of better socks and less stiff hose allowed European footwear to become firmer and more durable. Welting was developed, using a narrow band of leather between the uppers and sole to improve appearance and comfort, increase water resistance, and simplify repair, particularly resoling worn shoes. Beginning with the 1533 marriage of the 14-year-old Florentine Catherine de Medici to Prince Henry of France, both male and female royalty and nobles began wearing high heels, giving rise to the expression "well heeled".{{citation |last=Goonetilleke |first=Ravindra |date=2012 |title=The Science of Footwear (Human Factors and Ergonomics) |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-4398-3568-5 }}.{{citation |last= |first= |title=Dangerous Elegance: A History of High-Heeled Shoes |url=http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/036heels.html|access-date=1 July 2010 }} This was done sometimes for display or appearance and sometimes as an aid to riding in stirrups. For the most part, male footwear was more ornate and expensive because women's feet were usually covered by the large dresses of the era. Shoe fetishism was first publicized in the work of Nicolas-Edme Rétif in prerevolutionary France.{{citation |first=Nicolas-Edme |last=Rétif |author-link=Nicolas-Edme Rétif |title=Le Pied de Fanchette |date=1769 |language=fr |publisher= |location= }}. 17th-century Cavalier boots developed into upper-class fashion and into sailing boots prized by fishermen and pirates before being replaced as military gear by the 18th-century Hessian and 19th-century Wellington boot. In Ming and Qing China, foot binding led to the development of lotus shoes for Han women and then flowerpot shoes for the Manchu women who wanted to emulate the characteristic walk of women with bound feet without undergoing the process themselves. In Africa, North America, and Spanish and Portuguese South America, slave codes often mandated slaves should be barefoot at all times without exception.{{cite book |last=Frazine |first=Richard Keith |title=The Barefoot Hiker |year=1993 |publisher=Ten Speed Press |isbn=0-89815-525-8 |pages=98 |url={{GBurl|id=edsITVCd2G0C|q=barefoot+hiker}}}} Following its independence, the American South was an exception. Its demand for masses of low-quality shoes for its slaves was met by workshops in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, a dependence that later hobbled the Confederate Army during the Civil War{{citation |last=Bierle |first=Sarah Kay |date=7 April 2022 |contribution-url=https://emergingcivilwar.com/2022/04/07/on-the-march-a-few-notes-on-shoes-boots/ |url=https://emergingcivilwar.com |contribution=On the March: A Few Notes on Shoes & Boots |title=Official site |publisher=Emerging Civil War |location=Stevenson Ridge }}. and became responsible in legend for the decisive Battle of Gettysburg.{{citation |last=Wolfe |first=Brendan |contribution-url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/shoes-at-gettysburg/ |contribution=Shoes at Gettysburg |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org |title=Encyclopedia Virginia |publisher=Virginia Humanities |location=Charlottesville |date=7 December 2020 }}.

File:Portrait of Louis XIV of France in Coronation Robes (by Hyacinthe Rigaud) - Louvre Museum.jpg | Louis XIV of France in chunky heels ({{c.|1700}})

File:Fragonard, The Pump.jpg | The mule flying from the woman's foot in Fragonard's Happy Accidents of the Swing ({{c.|1768}})

File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18134478766).jpg | 19th-century Moccasins of the Cree and Blackfoot, partially modified following first contact with Europeans

File:Pair of Woman's Slippers for Bound Feet LACMA M.67.8.136a-b.jpg | Qing-era lotus shoes, worn by Han women with bound feet

File:Weißenfels, Schloss Neu-Augustusburg, Schuhmuseum, chinesische Damenschuhe.jpg | Manchu flowerpot shoes intended to mimic the same gait

File:Brogans MET 50.100.12a-b CP4.jpg | Brogans of the type worn by both sides of the American Civil War

File:Abraham Lincoln's appearance (1889) (14760962781).jpg | Boots supposedly worn by Abraham Lincoln at his assassination (1930s/40s)

Amid the Industrial Revolution, John Adam Dagyr's introduction of assembly line production{{citation |last=Mulligan |first=William H. Jr. |contribution-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2120894 |contribution=Mechanization and Work in the American Shoe Industry: Lynn, Massachusetts, 1852{{ndash}}1883 |title=The Journal of Economic History |date=March 1981 |volume=41 |number=1 |pages=59–63 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |jstor=2120894 }}. and tight quality control{{citation |contribution-url=https://www.livingplaces.com/MA/Essex_County/Lynn_City.html |contribution=Lynn |title=Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People |date=1937 |series=American Guide Series |author=Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts |publisher=Riverside Press |location=Cambridge }}. to the "ten-footer" workshops{{citation |last= |first= |contribution-url=https://www.computerimages.com/musings/massachusetts-shoe-industry.html |contribution=How Massachusetts Became Shoemaker to the Country |url=https://www.computerimages.com |title=Official site |publisher=Computer Images |location=Boston |date=2016 |ref=CITEREFComputer_Images2016 }}. in Lynn, Massachusetts, US, around 1760 is sometimes credited as the first shoe factory. However, although mechanized textile mills greatly reduced the price of proper socks, each step of the shoemaking process still needed to be done by hand in a slowly optimized putting-out system.{{citation |last=Dooley |first=William H. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55474/55474-h/55474-h.htm |title=A Manual of Shoemaking and Leather and Rubber Products |location=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown, & Co. |date=1912 |page=253 }} The first mechanized systems{{mdash}}developed by Marc Isambard Brunel in 1810 to supply boots to the British Army amid the Napoleonic Wars{{mdash}}failed commercially as soon as the wars were over because the demobilized soldiers reduced the price of manual labor.{{citation |last= |first= |contribution-url=http://staffscc.net/shoes1/?p=126 |contribution=History of Shoemaking in Britain{{mdash}}Napoleonic Wars and the Industrial Revolution |date=9 December 2010 |title=Heart & Sole: Boot and Shoe Making in Staffordshire |publisher=Staffordshire County Museum |location=Shugborough |access-date=1 July 2023 |archive-date=2 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202130102/http://staffscc.net/shoes1/?p=126 |url-status=dead }}. John Nichols's 1850 adaptation of Howe and Singer's sewing machines to handle binding uppers to soles{{citation |last=Cutter |first=William Richard |author2=Fred A. Gannon |display-authors=1 |contribution=John Brooks Nichols |contribution-url=https://www.fiddlebase.com/biographical-sketches/nichols-john-brooks/ |title=Fiddlebase |url=https://www.fiddlebase.com |date=2021 |publisher= |location= }}. and the Surinamese immigrant Jan Ernst Matzeliger's 1880 invention of an automatic lasting machine finally allowed true industrialization, taking the productivity of individual workers from 20 or 50 pairs a day to as many as 700, halving prices,{{citation |last=Lienhard |first=Jan H. |publisher=University of Houston |location=Houston |contribution=No. 522: Jan Matzeliger |contribution-url=http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi522.htm |title=Engines of Our Ingenuity |date=2000 }}. and briefly making Lynn the center of world shoe production.{{sfnp|Computer Images|2016}}{{citation |last=Herwick |first=Edgar B. III |contribution-url=https://www.wgbh.org/news/post/how-lynn-became-shoe-capitol-world |url=https://www.wgbh.org |contribution=How Lynn Became the Shoe Capital of the World |title=Official site |publisher=WGBH |location=Boston |date=30 May 2014 }}. As late as 1865, most men in the industry identified in the census and city directory as general purpose "cordwainers" or "shoemakers"; by 1890, they were almost universally described as "shoe workers" or{{mdash}}more often{{mdash}}by the specific name of their work within the industry: "edgesetter", "heel trimmer", "McKay machine operator". Many were replaced by cheaper immigrants; the Czech Tomáš Baťa joined these workers at Lynn in 1904 and then returned to his own factory in Zlín, Moravia, mechanizing and rationalizing its production while guiding the factory town that developed into a garden city.

File:StonehamMA DoucetteTenFooter.jpg | A preserved "ten footer" in Stoneham, Massachusetts (2013)

File:Lynn, Massachusetts, 1849.jpg | Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1849

File:The avant couriers of the coming man-Scene in Sampson's Shoe Manufactory at North Adams, Mass.-Teaching the Chinese the use of the pegging machine LCCN2002736866.tif | American shoemakers demonstrating machinery to visiting Chinese in 1870

File:Manufacturing center of Lynn, Mass.(2675939038).jpg | Lynn in 1879

File:Zwikmachine 1885.jpg | Matzeliger's automated laster

File:Shoe factories, Lynn, Mass.- 2 women working in shoe factory LCCN2006681286.tif | Women creating uppers in Lynn in 1895

File:Bata 1922 advertising poster.jpg | Bata advertisement for their half-price response to the 1920 Depression

By the early 20th century, vulcanization had led to the development of plimsolls, deck shoes, rubber boots, galoshes, and waders. The prevalence of trench foot in World War I focused attention on the importance of providing of adequate footwear in following conflicts, although this was not always possible. Millions of Chinese soldiers in both the NRA and PLA were obliged to use straw and rope shoes to allow easy replacement on long marches during both World War II and the following civil war,{{citation |last=Beevor |first=Antony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0TbaPWrOO4C |title=The Second World War |publisher=Hachette |location=London |date=2012 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=u0TbaPWrOO4C&pg=PT91 91] |isbn=9780297860709 }}. contributing to disease and desertion, particularly among the Nationalists.{{citation |last=Nolan |first=Cathal J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZJxDwAAQBAJ |title=The Concise Encyclopedia of World War II |volume=I |publisher=Greenwood |location=Santa Barbara |contribution=Guomintang |contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ZJxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA488 |date=2010 |isbn=9780313365270 }}.{{citation |last=Camp |first=LaVonne Telshaw |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zTAv213uxj4C |title=Lingering Fever: A World War II Nurse's Memoir |publisher=McFarland & Co. |location=Jefferson |date=1997 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=zTAv213uxj4C&pg=PA41 41] |isbn=9780786403226 }}. Following the world wars, the increasing importance of professional sports greatly popularized a variety of athletic shoes, particularly sneakers. Major brands such as Converse, Adidas, and Nike used celebrity endorsements from Chuck Taylor, Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, and others to promote their products. Fashion houses periodically prompted new trends in women's and high-end fashion. In particular, while working for Christian Dior, Roger Vivier popularized the stiletto heel in 1954. (Men's dress shoes have tended to retain 19th-century British looks such as the Oxford shoe and loafers.) Various subcultures have employed distinctive footwear as part of their identity, including winklepickers, Doc Martens, and skate shoes.

File:Industries of War - Footwear - MANUFACTURING RUBBER BOOTS Finished Rubber Boots ready for shipment - NARA - 31488470.jpg | Rubber boots ready for shipment in 1917

File:PLA straw sandal.jpg | People's Liberation Army straw sandals at the Museum of the People's Revolution (2017)

File:Bologna-Raccordo tra canale di Reno e canale delle Moline.jpg | Tossed Chuck Taylor All-Stars in Italy (2018)

File:Ballet shoes.jpg | Ballet shoes (2013)

File:Joma soccer boot.gif | Soccer cleats, known in British as "football boots" (2018)

File:Blake Lively 2016.jpg | Stiletto heels at Cannes (2016)

File:Platform shoes.jpg | Platform heels and Japanese getas on the London Underground (2006)

The international trade in footwear was at first chiefly restricted to American exports to Europe and Europe's exports to its various colonial empires.{{sfnp|Clothier & al.|2005|p=6}} Assisted by the Marshall Plan after World War II, Italy became the major shoe exporting country in the 1950s.{{sfnp|Clothier & al.|2005|p=6}}{{citation |last= |first= |contribution-url=http://staffscc.net/shoes1/?p=129 |contribution=History of Shoemaking in Britain{{mdash}}The 20th Century |date=9 December 2010 |title=Heart & Sole: Boot and Shoe Making in Staffordshire |publisher=Staffordshire County Museum |location=Shugborough |access-date=3 July 2023 |archive-date=19 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219012341/http://staffscc.net/shoes1/?p=129 |url-status=bot: unknown }}. It was joined in the 1960s by Japan, which offshored its production to Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong as its own labor became too expensive.{{sfnp|Clothier & al.|2005|p=6}} In their turn, the Hong Kong manufacturers began moving production to Guangdong in mainland China almost immediately after the establishment of Deng Xiaoping's Opening Up Policy in the early 1980s.{{sfnp|Clothier & al.|2005|p=6}} Competitors were soon forced to follow suit, including removal of Taiwanese and Korean{{sfnp|Clothier & al.|2005|p=11}} production to Fujian and to Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang.{{sfnp|Clothier & al.|2005|p=6}} Similarly, amid Perestroika and the Fall of Communism, Italy dismantled its domestic industry, outsourcing its work to Eastern Europe, which proved less dependable than the Chinese and further eroded their market share.{{sfnp|Clothier & al.|2005|p=30}} Beginning around the year 2000, China has constantly produced more than half of the world's shoes.{{citation |last=Clothier |first=Anthony |author2=Frerenc Schme/l |author3=Song Wenxian |author4=Su Chaoying |display-authors=1 |url=https://leatherpanel.org/sites/default/files/publications-attachments/chineese_footwear_industry.pdf |title=The Chinese Footwear Industry and Its Influence upon the World Trade |date=21 September 2005 |ref=CITEREFClothier_&_al.2005 |publisher=United National Industrial Development Organization |location=Leo/n |series=15th Meeting of the UNIDO Leather Panel |page=5 }}. As of 2021, footwear is the 30th most traded category internationally;{{citation |last= |first= |contribution-url=https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/footwear-1264?redirect=true |contribution=Footwear |url=https://oec.world |title=Observatory of Economic Complexity |publisher=Datawheel |location=Cambridge |date=2023 |ref=CITEREFOEC2023 }}. but, while China produces well over 60% of exported footwear,{{citation |last=Smith |first=P. |contribution-url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/227296/leading-10-global-footwear-exporters-by-country/ |contribution=Leading 10 Global Footwear Exporters 2021 by Country |url=https://www.statista.com |title=Official site |publisher=Statista |location=New York |date=2022 }}. it currently earns less than 36% of the value of the total trade{{sfnp|OEC|2023}} owing to the continuing importance of American, German, and other brands in the North American and European markets.

File:Shoe Factory (USIS pix) - DPLA - 5a4ec2008dc0daf0cd5fbc95bfe66a5e.jpg | Assembly line in a French shoe factory (1948)

File:صانع احذية.jpg | A cobbler in Cairo, Egypt (2015)

File:Werk Fridingen.jpg | A shoe factory in Fridingen, Germany (2016)

File:PEB - Nike Shoe Factory.png | Nike factory in Vietnam (2016)

File:Shoes and Fruit (p365 20).jpg | Shoes and fruit at a Hong Kong market (2007)

File:Kangnai stall at BHG Shangdi (20170113192444).jpg | Shoe store in a Beijing mall (2017)

{{expand section|date=July 2015}}

Modern footwear is usually made of leather or plastic, and rubber. In fact, leather was one of the original materials used for the first versions of a shoe.{{Cite news|url=http://all-that-is-interesting.com/fascinating-history-footwear|title=The Fascinating History Of Footwear|date=2013-04-23|newspaper=All That Is Interesting|language=en-US|access-date=2016-10-24}} The soles can be made of rubber or plastic, sometimes with the addition of a sheet of metal on the inside. Roman sandals had sheets of metal on their soles so that they would not bend out of shape.

In more recent times, footwear suppliers such as Nike have begun to source environmentally friendly materials.{{Cite news|url=https://www.reference.com/beauty-fashion/materials-used-make-nike-shoes-ed3243e8c66589de|title=What materials are used to make Nike shoes?|newspaper=Reference|access-date=2016-10-24}}

File:Shoe diagram.svg

{{div col}}

• Adhesives
• Buckle
• Counter (footwear): Backstay fitting between upper and lining in heel area and giving structure to back of shoe and supporting ankle.
• Eyelet
• Heel
• Hook
• Insole
• Outsole
• Laces
• Shank
• Sole
• Tack
• Tongue (footwear): Part of shoe covering top of foot underneath laces
• Tread
• Welt

{{div col end}}

{{see also|List of shoe styles}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|

• Chukka boots
• Combat boots
• Cowboy boots
• Derby boots
• Fashion boots
• Go-go boots
• Hiking boots
• Motorcycle boots
• Mukluk
• Platform boots
• Riding boots
• Russian boots
• Seaboots
• Tabi boots
• Tanker boots
• Thigh-high boots
• Valenki
• Veldskoen
• Waders
• Wellington boots
• Winklepickers

}}

File:New features, great staff, quality food draw crowds to New River Bowling Center 141117-M-IY869-014.jpgs are a type of athletic shoe]]

File:Football Boot A 2018.jpg

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|

• Athletic shoes (also known as trainers or sneakers)
• Ballet flats
• Brothel creepers
• Court shoes (known in the US as pumps)
• Diabetic shoes
• Espadrilles
• Galoshes
• Kitten heels
• Lace-up shoes
• Derby shoes
• Oxford shoes
• Brogues
• Blucher shoes
• High-tops
• Loafers
• Mary Janes
• Moccasins
• Monks
• Mules
• Platform shoes
• Plimsoll shoes
• School shoes
• Skate shoes
• Tap shoes
• Toe shoes

}}

File:Vibram FiveFingers KSO.jpg

• Sandals
• Kolhapuri Chappals
• Peshawari chappal
• Flip-flops (thongs)
• Slide
• Wörishofer
• Avarca, from Balearic IslandsFile:Sandalen.jpg]]

• Slippers
• Closed slippers
• Open slippers

File:Five Ten Anasazi Verde.jpg]]

• Ballet shoes
• Boat shoes
• High-heeled footwear
• Climbing shoes
• Clogs
• Football boots
• Sabaton
• Safety footwear
• Sailing boots
• Ski boots
• Snowshoes
• Ice skates
• Surgical shoe
• Pointe shoes
• Swimfins (flippers)
• Barefoot sandals

File:FootClothFromFinnishDefenceForces.JPG used by the Finnish Army until the 1990s]]

• Abarka, of leather, from Pyrenees
• Areni-1 shoe, 5,500-year-old leather shoe found in Armenia
• Bast shoe, of bast, from Northern Europe
• Crakow, shoes from Poland with long toes popular in the 15th century
• Galesh, of textile, from Iran
• Geta, of wood, from Japan
• Klompen, of wood, from the Netherlands
• Opanci, of leather, from Balkans
• Pampooties, of hide, from Ireland

File:Typical socks.jpgFile:Yellow-green toe socks.jpgFile:Flip-Flops socks.jpg

• Socks
• Anklets
• Bobby socks
• Diabetic socks
• Dress socks
• Footwraps
• Knee highs
• Toe socks

{{Expand section|date=August 2020}}

In Europe, recent decades have seen a decline in the footwear industry. While about 27,000 firms were in business in 2005, only 21,700 remained in 2009. Not only have these firms decreased in number, but direct employment has also reduced within the sector.{{Cite report |url=https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/daf8fc79-394f-4157-996d-829b63b916dc |title=In-depth assessment of the situation of the European footwear sector and prospects for its future development |last=Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (European Commission) |date=2012 |id=NB-01-14-255-EN-N |access-date=6 December 2023}}

In the U.S., the annual footwear industry revenue was $48 billion in 2012. In 2015, there were about 29,000 shoe stores in the U.S. and the shoe industry employed about 189,000 people.{{cite web|url=http://www.statisticbrain.com/footwear-industry-statistics/|title=Footwear Industry Statistics|website=www.statisticbrain.com|access-date=2 May 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150520075302/http://www.statisticbrain.com/footwear-industry-statistics|archive-date=20 May 2015}} Due to rising imports, these numbers are also declining. The only way of staying afloat in the shoe market is to establish a presence in niche markets.{{cite web|url=http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=369|title=Shoe & Footwear Manufacturing in the US Market Research – IBISWorld|access-date=2 May 2015}}

To ensure high quality and safety of footwear, manufacturers have to make sure all products comply to existing and relevant standards. By producing footwear in accordance with national and international regulations, potential risks can be minimized and the interest of both textile manufacturers and consumers can be protected.

The following standards/regulations apply to footwear products:

• CPSIA
• GB Standards such as
• GB20400－2006 Leather and fur-limit of harmful matter
• QB/T1002-2005 Leather shoes
• GB/T 15107 Athletic footwear
• EN Standards for Footwear
• ASTM Standards{{cite web|url=http://www.astm.org/Standards/F2413.htm|title=Standard Specification for Performance Requirements for Protective (Safety) Toe Cap Footwear|access-date=5 July 2016}}
• ISO standards{{cite web|url=http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_tc_browse.htm?commid=54972|title=ISO – ISO Standards – ISO/TC 216 – Footwear|access-date=2 May 2015}}
• AAFA Restricted Substance List
• BIS (ISI) : IS 15298-I: 2011 test methods, IS 15298 –II for safety footwear, IS 15298-III Protective footwear, IS 15298-IV Occupational Footwear

Footwear can create two types of impressions: two-dimensional and three-dimensional impressions.{{Cite book |author=Gardner, Ross M. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1255870591 |title=Practical crime scene processing and investigation |date=30 June 2021 |publisher=Taylor & Francis Limited |isbn=978-1-032-09443-4 |oclc=1255870591}} When footwear places material onto a solid surface, it creates a two-dimensional impression.{{Cite book |last=Baxter Jr |first=E |title=Complete Crime Scene Investigation Handbook |publisher=CRC Press |year=2015 |pages=284–285 |language=English}} These types of impressions can be made with a variety of substances, like dirt and sand. When footwear removes material from a soft surface, it creates a three-dimensional impression. These types of impressions can be made in a variety of soft substances, like snow and dirt. Two-dimensional impressions also differ from three-dimensional impressions because the latter demonstrate length, width, and depth whereas two-dimensional impressions only demonstrate the first two aspects.

{{portal|Fashion}}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• American Apparel and Footwear Association
• American Podiatric Medical Association
• Boot fetishism
• Hiking boot
• List of current and defunct clothing and footwear stores in the United Kingdom
• List of footwear designers
• List of shoe styles
• NoBull
• Orthopaedic footwear
• Shoe fetishism
• Shoe size
• Shoes

{{div col end}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book | last=Goonetilleke | first=R.S. | title=The Science of Footwear | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Human Factors and Ergonomics | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-4398-3568-5 | url={{GBurl|id=HB6oGzDRSSIC}} }} 726 pages.
• {{cite book | last=Wilcox | first=R.T. | title=The Mode in Footwear: A Historical Survey with 53 Plates | publisher=Dover Publications | series=Dover Fashion and Costumes Series | year=2008 | isbn=978-0-486-46761-0 | url={{GBurl|id=Vxez-N1HO5kC}} }} 190 pages.
• {{cite book | last=Riello | first=G. | title=A Foot in the Past: Consumers, Producers and Footwear in the Long Eighteenth Century | publisher=Pasold Research Fund/Oxford University Press | series=Pasold studies in textile history | year=2006 | isbn=0-19-929225-6 | url={{GBurl|id=X9rbQBkR-usC}} }} 302 pages.

• {{Commons-inline}}
• [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9108380/clothing-and-footwear-industry Encyclopædia Britannica: clothing and footwear industry]

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{{Historical clothing}}

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