Shoes have made a lot of changes over the years. Early man didn't have what we would call shoes, but wore instead layers of soft fur lined leather wrapped around his foot, spiraling neatly up his calves, where they were tied at the top. As the brain developed and new learning was layered upon old learning, and tools were devised, the brain came to appreciate that the sole of shoe could be fashioned and attached to leather uppers that formed a neat compartment in which to put the foot. Laces made their appearance, binding the footwear to the foot with a convenient tying mechanism.



European cobblers formed trade unions and the first shoe stores of modern times were born. Each culture had different forms of shoes, and different materials, each appearing at different times of the cultural development. But the cobblers, as an example, promoted their business and their wares, taking measurements of the feet and making shoes with a custom fit long before the advent of mass production made it's appearance with the industrial revolution. The unions gained power, like all unions eventually do, and kept its secrets so that competition was kept at bay. Apprenticeships became a way one could master the trade of shoe making, and sons often followed in the footsteps of their fathers, taking on the family business as death at an early age was quite common.



These days, one need not go to a cobbler to have a shoe made, or to have shoes that are too tight stretched with instep stretchers. Shoe stores abound and stretchers are common items that are mass produced and can be purchased from a wide variety of sources. Application of Fiebing shoe stretcher fluid will relax the leather fibers and allow the leather to stretch much more easily, so that it does not tear and damage a shoe. Thus, the favorite shoe that could neither be comfortably worn, nor which no dainty woman in her right mind would wear while tracking through miles of mud to naturally stretch the leather, can now be instantly made comfortable when another pair of shoes that match a new dress and purse cannot be found.