What is a shoe?
A: A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human
foot.
Shoes are also used as an item of what?
A: Decoration and fashion.
The design of shoes has varied enormously through time
and from culture to culture, with form originally being tied to what?
A: Function.
Though the human foot can adapt to varied terrains and
climate conditions, it is still vulnerable to environmental hazards such as
what?
A: Sharp rocks and temperature extremes.
Some shoes are worn as safety equipment, such as what?
A: Steel-toe boots which are required footwear at industrial worksites.
Additionally, fashion has often dictated many design
elements, such as whether shoes have what?
A: Very high heels or flat ones.
Basic sandals may consist of only a what?
A: A thin sole and simple strap.
Traditionally, shoes have been made from what?
A: Leather, wood or canvas, but are increasingly being made from rubber,
plastics, and other materials.
Globally, the shoe industry is worth how much money a
year?
A: $200 billion.
90% of shoes end up where?
A: In landfills, because the materials are hard to separate, recycle or
otherwise reuse.
The earliest known shoes are sagebrush bark sandals
dating from approximately when?
A: 7000 or 8000 BC.
Where were they found?
A: In the Fort Rock Cave in the US state of
Oregon in
1938.
The world’s oldest leather shoe is made from what?
A: A single piece of cowhide laced with a leather cord along seams at the
front and back.
Where was it found?
A: In the Areni-1 cave complex in Armenia in 2008 and is believed to date to
3500 BC.
Ötzi the Iceman's shoes, dating to 3300 BC, featured
what?
A: Brown bearskin bases, deerskin side panels, and a bark-string net, which
pulled tight around the foot.
The Jotunheimen shoe was discovered in August 2006:
archaeologists estimate that this leather shoe was made when?
A: Between 1800 and 1100 BC, making it the oldest article of clothing
discovered in Scandinavia.
Many early natives in North America wore a similar type
of footwear, known as what?
A: The moccasin.
These are tight-fitting, soft-soled shoes typically
made out of what?
A: Leather or bison hides.
Many moccasins were also decorated with what?
A: Various beads and other adornments.
Moccasins were not designed to be waterproof, and in
wet weather and warm
summer months, most Native Americans did what?
A: Went barefoot.
The leaves of the sisal plant were used to make what?
A: Twine for sandals in South America while the natives of
Mexico used the
Yucca plant.
Ancient Egyptian sandals were made from what?
A: Papyrus and palm leaves.
The Masai of Africa made them out of what?
A: Rawhide.
In India they were made from what?
A: Wood.
The ancient Greeks largely viewed footwear as what?
A: Self-indulgent, unaesthetic, and unnecessary.
Shoes were primarily worn in the theater, as a means of
what?
A: Increasing stature.