Interesting Shoe Facts and Tidbits

1. When trying on shoes, make sure you're wearing the appropriate sock. For instance, if you're trying on boots that you'd wear with heavy socks, don't try them on with thin nylons.
2. The best time to try on shoes is usually at the end of the day, when your feet are most swollen. However, don't abuse this rule of thumb: if you've just completed a sightseeing tour which required 10 miles of walking, and that's not your typical exercise routine, then by all means don't try on office heels that night! The point of waiting until the end of the day is to make sure that the footwear can fit you at your widest-- kind of a "worst case scenario" check.
3. The first shoe you try on should be for your larger foot. For most people, their larger foot is the opposite from the hand they write with. For example, if you're right handed, your left foot might be bigger. Always fit the pair of shoes to this foot. Even though there are about 20 separate parts to an average shoe, the fact remains that they are mass-produced. It's up to you to customize the fit-- a small heel pad, for instance, works wonders.
4. Stand up with your shoes on. Walk around a bit. You should be able to wiggle your toes in the front of the shoe. For most footwear, your toes will be able to touch the top of the shoe, but there should be 3/8" to 1/2" of space between your longest toe and the end of the shoe.
5. Don't buy shoes that are too tight. If you're at the point where you're praying they will stretch to be comfortable, they probably won't. It's true that soft leather and suede give slightly, molding to your foot, but they will not dramatically increase in width or length. There's a difference between a "snug", comfortable fit and a "tight", uncomfortable fit. A few laps around a carpet should help you decide how you feel.

Shoe Care Tips

How tall am I? Honey, with hair, heels and attitude I'm through this damned roof.
-RuPaul

Forrest Gump: Mama says they was magic shoes. They could take me anywhere. “Forrest Gump” (1994)
Fletch: I would have been here sooner, but a manure-spreader jacknifed on the Santa Ana. You should see my shoes. “Fletch” (1985)
Tommy DeVito: I don't shine your shoes anymore! “Goodfellas” (1990)
Archie Bunker: I don't want no rubbers, every time I put 'em off, my shoes come off with 'em. "All in the Family" (1971)

I never figured out what they wanted. But they were willing to pay a lot for it.
Andy Warhol

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues.
-David Bowie

Nine out of 10 women wear shoes that are too small, according to the same survey.

Women's Feet are Becoming Larger:
In 1986, 12% of American women had shoe sizes 9.5 and higher. In 1994, that number increased to 17%. In 1998, 30.4% of all women's shoes sold were size 9 and above.

A sample survey showed that 60% of women's feet increased in shoe size since age 20.

You can not put the same shoe on every foot.
-Publilius Syrus, Maxim 593

The average increase in the protrusion of a woman's buttocks is 25% when she wears high heels. (Harper's Index)

Did you know that….?

 That shoe sizes were standardized in Britain in 1885?

That shoe sizes in Britain differ by 1/3 of an inch – allegedly the length of 3 barley corns?

That the open-toed shoe became fashionable in the 1930s as a result of the new vogue for sunbathing?

That 18th century legislation designed to create paved walkways within cities allowed women to wear less practical shoes with higher heels?

That the boot scrapers installed outside Georgian front doors indicate that the gentry could walk about a city instead of going everywhere by carriage or sedan chair?

That shoes were originally made as straights and could be worn on either foot. Left and right shoes only asserted themselves with the reintroduction of the high heel in the nineteenth century?

 That the average person walks 2,000 miles a year?

That one quarter of the bones in your body are in your foot?

That there are 18 muscles in the human foot?

That fairy tales often use shoes as a symbol representing an escape from an otherwise humdrum life?

That red shoes have always been considered special?

That the first known images of footwear are boots depicted in 15,000 year old Spanish cave paintings?

That St Crispin is the Patron Saint of shoemaking (cordwainers) and that St Crispin’s Day is 25 October?

That over 100 different operations go into the construction of an individual shoe?

That shoes have traditionally been hidden in buildings to protect the house and its inhabitants from evil and misfortune?

That the most ever paid for a pair of 2nd hand shoes is $665,000. Judy Garland’s last pair of ruby slippers, worn in the Wizard of Oz film, were sold in 2000?

That the boots Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in are still floating around in space?!

The History of Shoes: Superstition
Itchy Feet

An itching foot foretold a long journey from which the person would derive pleasure (or walk on strange/foreign ground). If it was the right sole then the person was either going somewhere they would be welcomed ; or would undertake a task and be successful in it. The opposite was true for the left sole. Itching feet could also mean a sign of sorrow and some believed it was the forecast of a new shoes. In the Middle Ages shoes neede to be broken in which might mean a sorry situation, also the ida of new shoe may related to a death in the family.