Footwear

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Footwear consists of garments worn on the feet, for group or individual fashion, protection against the environment, and adornment. Poor people in impoverished or third world groups DO NOT WEAR FOOTWEAR; e.g. indigenous peoples of equatorial regions with little or no contact with "modern" cultures. Often fashion or individual quirks trends in some prohibit or avoid footwear use (for example, some temples, culture-bound homes). {referece here to "Hong Kong foot syndrome"}

All foot wear items must conform to the medical needs of the feet, depending on the foot and its situation of use. So humidicrib babies and hospice people may not require footwear. Biological usage of the foot is a first medical demand of correct footware. However since cultural expectaions are much more forceful, usually these over-ride all medical considerations: humidity, skin abrasion, infection, "dirt" & insect infestations, muscular strength & endurance, skeletal loads, endurance and conformity, and environmental protection.

The environmental demands on footwear is not always well selected. Social environments demand footwear cues that demand disclosure of class, ethnicity, wealth and other factors. Foot usage environments demand protection against terrain: humidity (and lack of it), poisons, dust and insect infestations, heat or cold, and surface variability. The surface variables of the terrain may be predictable or not: undulating, liquid, sticky, ultra-smooth, icy or volcanic, or other factors.

Socks and other hosiery are usually worn between the feet and the footwear, less often with sandals and flip flops (thongs). Footwear is sometimes associated with fetishism, particularly in some fashions in shoes and boots.

People who practice the profession of shoemaking are shoemakers, cobblers or cordwainers. Specialized footwear makers for unusal feet are rare, so are called ..., requiring specialized apprenticeships and / or training.

The oldest known footwear was discovered in Fort Rock Cave in the U.S. state of Oregon; radiocarbon dating of these sandals woven from sagebrush bark indicates an age of least 10,000 years.[1]

Contents

[edit] Materials

[edit] Components

[edit] Types

Shoes made from real crocodile skin, in a conservation exhibit at Bristol Zoo, England

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Robbins, William G. (2005). Oregon: This Storied Land. Oregon Historical Society Press. ISBN 0987595-286-0. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footwear"