Sneakers are a type of footwear.A pair oftrack shoes with spikes. They are designed for running and demonstrate how footwear can be used for specific purposes. The ultra-lightweight upper ensures the runner's step can be as light as possible and the spikes mean that a more stable foot placement can be achieved.
Footwear refers togarments worn on thefeet, which typically serve the purpose ofprotection against adversities of the environment such as wear from rough ground; stability on slippery ground; and temperature.
Shoes and similar garments ease locomotion and prevent injuries. Such footwear can also be used forfashion andadornment, as well as to indicate the status or rank of the person within asocial structure.
Socks and otherhosiery are typically worn additionally between the feet and other footwear for further comfort and relief.
Cultures have different customs regarding footwear. These include not using any in some situations, usually bearing a symbolic meaning. This can however also be imposed on specific individuals to place them at a practical disadvantage against shod people, if they are excluded from having footwear available or are prohibited from using any. This usually takes place in situations of captivity, such asimprisonment orslavery, where the groups are among other things distinctly divided by whether or not footwear is being worn.
In some cultures, people remove their shoes before entering a home. Bare feet are also seen as a sign of humility and respect, and adherents of many religions worship or mourn while barefoot. Some religious communities explicitly require people to remove shoes before they enter holy buildings, such as temples.
In several cultures people remove their shoes as a sign of respect towards someone of higher standing. Similarly, deliberately forcing other people to go barefoot while being shod oneself has been used to clearly showcase and convey one's superiority within a setting of power disparity.
Practitioners of the craft ofshoemaking are called shoemakers, cobblers, orcordwainers.
Footwear has been used by humans sinceprehistoric times, withpaleoclimatology suggesting that they would have been needed in someareas of human settlement by at least 50,000years ago (BP) during theLast Glacial Period. Fossilised tracks have been found on the South Cape Coast, South Africa, that may date to 130,000 BP.[1]Osteologists have found evidence of the effect of footwear on human remains by around 40,000years ago.[2] The oldest shoes so far recovered were found on the Spirit Cave mummy, from Great Basin Desert in Nevada, and dating to approximately 10, 600 BP.[3] Another pair of shoes were recovered by a team underLuther Cressman inFort Rock Cave, Oregon, US, in 1938. They had been preserved under theMazama Ash depositedc. 5025 BC during thevolcanic eruption that formedCrater Lake.[4] In 1999, they weredated to around 10,500–9,300BP.[5]
Inmedieval 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 theturnshoe, 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 ofCharlemagne,Byzantine fashions began to influence the west and thepontificalia of thepopes and otherbishops began to feature greater luxury, includingembroidered silk and velvet slippers. By theHigh Middle Ages, fashion trends periodically promptedsumptuary taxes orregulations andchurch condemnation forvanity. The 12th-centurypigache and 14th- and 15th-centurypoulaine had elongated toes, often stuffed to maintain their shape. Around the same time, severalmendicant orders began practicingdiscalceation as an aspect of their vows of humility andpoverty, going entirely barefoot at all times or only wearingsandals in any weather. From the 1480s, the poulaine was replaced by theduckbill, which had a flat front but soon became impractically wide. The stiffhose 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-soledcalopedes,pattens, orgaloshes, overshoes that served as a platform while walking.[18] Particularly inVenice, these platforms were combined with the shoe to makechopines, sometimes so awkwardly high that the wearer required servants to help support them. (Turkish sources, meanwhile, credit the chopines directly to thenalins worn in Ottomanbaths and whose height was considered to be a marker of status.)[19]
Amid theIndustrial Revolution, John Adam Dagyr's introduction of assembly line production[16][26] and tight quality control[27] to the "ten-footer" workshops[28] inLynn, Massachusetts, US, around 1760 is sometimes credited as the firstshoe factory.[2] However, although mechanized textile mills greatly reduced the price of propersocks, each step of the shoemaking process still needed to be done by hand in a slowly optimizedputting-out system.[26][29] The first mechanized systems—developed byMarc Isambard Brunel in 1810 to supply boots to theBritish Army amid theNapoleonic Wars—failed commercially as soon as the wars were over because the demobilized soldiers reduced the price of manual labor.[30]John Nichols's 1850 adaptation ofHowe andSinger'ssewing machines to handle binding uppers to soles[31] and theSurinamese immigrantJan Ernst Matzeliger's 1880 invention of anautomatic 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,[26][32] and briefly making Lynn the center of world shoe production.[33][34] As late as 1865, most men in the industry identified in thecensus and city directory as general purpose "cordwainers" or "shoemakers"; by 1890, they were almost universally described as "shoe workers" or—more often—by the specific name of their work within the industry: "edgesetter", "heel trimmer", "McKay machine operator".[26] Many were replaced by cheaperimmigrants;[26] the CzechTomáš Baťa joined these workers at Lynn in 1904 and then returned tohis own factory inZlín, Moravia, mechanizing and rationalizing its production while guiding thefactory town that developed into agarden city.
Theinternational trade in footwear was at first chiefly restricted to American exports to Europe and Europe's exports toits various colonial empires.[38] Assisted by theMarshall Plan afterWorld War II, Italy became the major shoe exporting country in the 1950s.[38][39] It was joined in the 1960s byJapan, whichoffshored its production toTaiwan,South Korea, andHong Kong as its own labor became too expensive.[38] In their turn, the Hong Kong manufacturers began moving production toGuangdong inmainland China almost immediately after the establishment ofDeng Xiaoping'sOpening Up Policy in the early 1980s.[38] Competitors were soon forced to follow suit, including removal of Taiwanese and Korean[40] production toFujian and toWenzhou in southernZhejiang.[38] Similarly, amidPerestroika and theFall of Communism, Italy dismantled its domestic industry, outsourcing its work toEastern Europe, which proved less dependable than the Chinese and further eroded their market share.[41] Beginning around the year 2000, China has constantly produced more than half of the world's shoes.[42] As of 2021, footwear is the 30th most traded category internationally;[43] but, while China produces well over 60% of exported footwear,[44] it currently earns less than 36% of the value of the total trade[45] owing to the continuing importance of American, German, and other brands in the North American and European markets.
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Modern footwear is usually made ofleather orplastic, andrubber. In fact, leather was one of the original materials used for the first versions of a shoe.[46] 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.[47]
Bowling shoes are a type of athletic shoeA football boot based upon a common design used in 2018. Note the absence of a leather tongue, the relatively low rear upper around the heel, and the presence of a sock style fastener. This design helps to ensure maximum flexibility and range of movement. By limiting the potential impingement of the ankle joint by the boot upper, it allows the wearer's gait to be more natural.
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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.[48]
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.[49] 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.[50]
To ensure high quality and safety offootwear, 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:
Footwear can create two types of impressions: two-dimensional and three-dimensional impressions.[53] When footwear places material onto a solid surface, it creates a two-dimensional impression.[53][54] These types of impressions can be made with a variety of substances, like dirt and sand.[53] When footwear removes material from a soft surface, it creates a three-dimensional impression.[53][54] These types of impressions can be made in a variety of soft substances, like snow and dirt.[53] 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.[54]
^Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts (1937),"Lynn",Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People, American Guide Series,Cambridge: Riverside Press.
^"History of Shoemaking in Britain—The 20th Century",Heart & Sole: Boot and Shoe Making in Staffordshire, Shugborough: Staffordshire County Museum, 9 December 2010, archived from the original on 19 February 2014, retrieved3 July 2023{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).
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