Fun Facts

10 Historical Foot Facts

Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (or Claudius I) had a club foot
An artificial big toe found attached to the foot of an ancient Egyptian mummy may have been the world’s earliest functional prosthetic body parts
Divine powers were attributes to polydactyls among the Maya
Women with bound feet were once stereotypical to China, deliberately crippled to conform to male ideals of beauty
Ancient footprints show human-like walking began nearly four million years ago
Leonardo DaVInci invented an alarm clock that woke a person by gently rubbing their feet
The record for the most toes on each foot goes to Akshat Saxenafrom northern India who came into the world with ten toes on each of his feet
Toe wrestling is an actual sport in several counties, complete with a men’s and women’s division and a Toe Wrestling World Championship
Jyoti Amge from Nagpar, India holds the world record for the smallest, non-bound feet, just 3.72 inches long
Brahim Takioullah from Morocco hold the honor for the largest feet. At 1 foot 3 inches long, his feet require a European size 58!

In the 1300s, King Edward II declared barleycorn as the basis for shoe measurement. Based on the length of a grain of barley, there are three barleycorns to an inch, so each shoe size adds a third of an inch in length to a shoe.
The most expensive shoes ever, Dorothy’s shoes from the Wizard of OZ, sold for $660,000.
The oldest preserved shoe is 5500 years old and was found in an Armenian cave.
The only shoe museum in North America is located in Toronto. This museum showcases shoes spanning over 4,500 years.
Sneakers were first made in America in 1916. They were originally called keds.
In Europe it wasn’t until the 18th century that women’s shoes were different from men’s.
In Europe, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored red.
The first boots were made for Queen Victoria in 1840
The ancient Romans were the first to construct distinct left and right shoes. Before that, shoes could be worn on either foot
The first foot coverings were probably animal skins, which Stone Age peoples in northern Europe and Asia tied around their ankles in cold weather