"It is the same to him who wears a shoe, as if the whole Earth were coverad with leather."
Persian Prpverb
From their earliest use, simply as a protective covering for the feet, to the vast fashion industry producing them today, shoes have been essential items for humans. As with any invention from antiquity, it is uncertain when shoes were first worn, and archeological evidence has continued to complicate the issue. The oldest shoes in existence are from around 7000 B.C.E. and were discovered in America.
The earliest shoes appear to have been constructed variously from rope, leaves, and animal skins. As these are all highly perishable materials, archeological examples are rare, but some argue that there is other evidence pointing to shoe use from up to 40,000 years ago. Archeologists examining ancient bones have noticed a reduction in the size and strength of toe bones during this period, which
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