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Early man made shoes out of whatever animal skin, bark and twine was available; his modern counterpart has the convenience of walking into a store, flipping through colorful catalogues listing styles of many famous designers or even ordering a pair online. Such is the advantage modern technology allows for innovations in shoes; be they a significant shift from the ribbon-tied shoes of a couple of hundred years ago to the current trend towards buckles, customized gem-inlay work, even embroidered and detailed ones with buckles and straps, there is always more scope for improvement in the automated shoes making industry as well as the hand-crafting footwear market of a select few.
Where cobblers had to struggle for days to develop a particular design or style of shoes to fit the buyer's unique measurement and taste, the automated shoes-making machinery of modern times, such as the rolling machine, have made the manual task of yore (for making smoother, secure soles) a lot easier and faster as the mechanisms compound leather efficiently to create longer-lasting soles.
1846 was the year the first sewing machine swung into rapid action for many seamstresses and tailors to woo fashion-conscious clients, who also needed to outfit themselves with the perfect pair of shoes to match the stylish clothes. This led to shoemakers also taking to the wonders of the sewing machine and replacing tedious hours of hand-stitching with automated sewing via the machine and perfectly shod feet stepped out of shoemakers' store that gradually got converted into industrialized shoes manufacturing units.
The appeal of shoes cannot be undermined in any culture even though trends and ethnicity as well as weather and economy play a crucial role in determining the nature and market of shoes that will sell well in a certain society. For example, the Dutch with their bulky, leg boots up to the knee introduced a style that provided both protection and style while the British made the slip-ons popular as this of shoes used elastic panels so that the task of wearing and removing shoes was easier and less time-consuming. Colder climes had more need for insulation and durability so when Russia made its contribution to the shoes centered world and women's walking boot, laced mid-foot to shin as well as the first man's hiking boot hit the markets, these created a foot fashion fever of sorts globally; called Alpine boot, these Russian shoes were planned with bent nails on the underside of the sole so that mountain climbers benefited from the added traction they needed in precarious conditions.
Besides the above innovations in shoes, history and cinema are filled with examples of shoes style and individual's craze for new fashions, especially considering Imelda Marcos with her 3000 odd shoes collection making news; from high heels to steel-toes, pumps to platforms, wedges to flats, roman tie-ups to worker shoes and casuals to sophisticated, the market for shoes is evolving and buyers are loving every minute of it.
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