When it comes to footwear, seniors and baby boomers have various viewpoints. Consider the example of high-heeled shoes for women. The older a woman gets, the more difficult is the challenge of donning high-heeled footwear. Yet senior women tend to be more traditional and may maintain a desire to wear high heels to church or on formal occasions.

Fashion experts, as a general rule, define high-heel footwear as shoes with an elevation of more than 3.5 inches. If it's "only" 3 inches, it's "just" a mid-heel. Go ahead and groan, ladies. The fashion experts setting these strict high-heel standards, of course, are men such as Maurizio and Paolo Gucci, and Jimmy Choo.

Who in the world invented high heels in the first place? One version is that the first wearers of high heels were men. As the Dark Ages gave way to the Renaissance so many moons ago, one great revelation among the fellas on horseback was that heels would help prevent their boots from slipping out of their stirrups. This can't be proven, however, not even on the History Channel.

Which ethnic group of women first started to get all fashionable with their footwear, progressing (or regressing, if that's your view) to higher and higher heels? Wouldn't you know it, the French and the Italians were in the lead roles. In fact, there may have been a sort of a combo trend sparked in 1533 by Catherine de' Medici. She was Queen of France, although she was of Italian stock, and she was really, really short. Therefore, legend has it, Catherine de' Medici had a chat with her cobbler. The rest is history, or rather, herstory.

Podiatrists tell women that if they must wear high heels, they should try to reserve this footwear for special occasions, not for daily work in the office. High heels add stress not only to a woman's feet, but also to the knees. Furthermore, the height of the heel isn't the only concern. Some high-heel shoe styles also smash the toes together, which isn't healthy either. Still, a quality high-heel shoe also can provide comfort...as long as not much walking is on the agenda.

SOURCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-heeled_footwear
http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/036heels.html

The history of shoes is filled with interesting and innovated designers. Each designer offers shoe lines that incorporate what the designer thinks shoe buyers want. WhiteMountain is a shoe company that focuses on shoes that are affordable, comfortable and fashionable. From the 1980s to the present, White Mountain has been offering a great selection of chic styles.

History of White Mountain
White Mountain started business in 1980. From their beginning they had a mission, and that mission was to make feet happy. They accomplished this by combining old world craftsmanship with modern technology. This combination produced shoe lines that had the supple feel of handcrafted leather with the ergonomic advantages that modern technology lends to shoe designs. Throughout the last several decades White Mountain has produced several great lines of shoes and shoe styles, and they have sold millions upon millions of fashionable shoes to women around the globe.

White Mountain Shoes
White Mountain has launched several shoe lines. One of the most popular shoe lines is the Rialto. This shoe line is a value price line, which basically means that these shoes are affordable. This line includes both every day shoes that are appropriate for work shoes and hanging around the house, as well as occasion shoes, which are appropriate for special events like date night, weddings and other celebrations.

Another popular line offered by White Mountain is Happy Feet. This line of shoes is dedicated to casual footwear. This includes great strappy sandals called Gladiators, flats, sandals and wedges.

White Mountain focuses on four different types of shoes. Their flats styles include Garrison and Granby. These shoes are great for work and casual wear. The second style that they carry is the Gladiators line. Gladiators are great strappy sandals that come in several styles from thongs to open toed sandals. The final styles offered by White Mountain are sandals and wedges. Both of these styles work well for both casual and dressy occasions.

Buying White Mountain Shoes
In order to buy White Mountain shoes you will need to find a White Mountain outlet or a shoe store that carries this line of shoes. Fortunately, there are many places across the country that carry White Mountain shoes. The next time you are out looking for a great pair of casual or dress shoes, look for the White Mountain label.

Shoe fashion in the United States hit a sweet spot in the Big Band era, which stretched between 1935 and 1945. During this era, shoe fashion was big with both men and women. The explosion of the popularity of American cinema brought shoe fashion to the foreground of American popular culture and made having the right shoes as important as wearing the right dress or suit. This change in style awareness affected the way that people looked at the shoes they bought and how they coordinated their outfits.

Shoe Fashion Changes During the Big Band Era
One of the biggest changes in shoe fashion during the Big Band Era was that there were a lot more shoes to choose between. Not only did the number of available shoe designs explode, but so did the number of sizes and fitting options. In fact, there were more sizes and fitting options during this historical era in America than there are now. The importance of having a well-fitted shoe that looked good was a change in American fashion sense, and it was created by the popularity of American cinema, which played up the appeal of having a great pair of shoes that fit your feet properly.

Shoe Designs That Were Popular During the Big Band Era
Many of the shoe designs that were popular during the Big Band Era are still around today. A few of the styles that were popular include high-heeled sandals, lace-up shoes, wedges and chunk heels. For men, loafers and lace-up shoes were popular. One of the new developments in shoe design during the late 1930s was the addition of lace to women's dress shoes. Salvatore Ferragamo was the first to apply lace to women's shoes.

As far as shoe materials go in the 1930s and 1940s, leather was the leader, especially for dress shoes. Leather was used in solid pieces, strips, braids and fringe. The color choices during this era ranged from neutral colors like tan, fawn and black to fashion colors that matched the latest designer clothing fashions on the market. Multicolor shoes were also introduced and generally created by adding lace, embroidery, beads and rhinestones.

Many shoe designers start their careers because they either can't find the type of shoe that they want or because they are inspired to create their own shoe design. Both of these scenarios fit the beginning story for Vegetarian Shoes. This shoe design company was founded in 1990 by a vegetarian who wanted to create a great looking shoe that used a material other than leather.

Vegetarian Shoes - The Beginning
Vegetarian Shoes was founded by an artist who just happened to be a vegetarian. After art school, Robin Webb, the founder of Vegetarian Shoes, read a story about people in Africa who were making shoes from old tire rubber. This story of ingenuity and practical recycling inspired him to come up with his own shoe design.

The first problem that Webb ran into was finding a breathable but durable material to use for his shoes. Fortune shined on Webb when he found a synthetic material used by yachters to upholster their boats. This material looked and felt like real leather, however, it was breathable, which was unusual for a synthetic-plastic material.

Vegetarian Shoes started out with a basic, handmade, lace-up shoe design that Webb made himself. The line's popularity exploded, and soon Webb was designing and manufacturing boots, shoes, sandals and even belts. Today Webb doesn't manufacture the shoes. Instead, this part of the business is farmed out to co-op manufacturers in Britain and other countries in Europe. Webb, however, still runs the sales end of things at a Brighton shoe shop.

Current Vegetarian Shoes Line
The current Vegetarian Shoes enterprise has expanded to include several distinct shoe lines. The casual sports line is one of the most popular. It includes shoe designs like the Slouch Shoe, the Aztec Shoe and X-trainers. The women's shoe line is also very popular. In this line, you will find designs like the Audrey Shoe, the Creeper and the Esme Loafer. Other lines offered by Vegetarian Shoes include women's boots, men's shoes, men's boots, off-road/hiking shoes, Airseal footwear, Birkenstock sandals, general sandals and slip-ons and safety footwear. Vegetarian Shoes have also branched out into other clothing and accessory products such as jackets, belts and bags.

Sustainable business practices are becoming more important to consumers. While many shoe manufacturers are slow to catch up to this trend, EcoDragon is on the forefront of the eco-friendly shoe manufacturing crusade. The company tries to create as little environmental impact as possible by selecting environmentally friendly construction materials and techniques. If you are interested in a comfortable shoe that is kind to the environment then check out the line offered by EcoDragon.

EcoDragon Background
EcoDragon is a natural shoe company that was found in 1993 by a pair of brothers named Wes and Eric Crain. Their goal was to design a line of shoes that utilized the ultra-environmentally friend fiber called hemp. Hemp was chosen as the construction material because it is easy to grow without chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides, is one of the strongest vegetable fibers in the world and can be woven into cloth or spun into twine and rope.

In addition to using the eco-friendly hemp as the primary material for their shoe line, the Crain brothers also utilized dyes that were fiber-reactive. This means that the dye quickly absorbs into the fiber and becomes naturally affixed to the fiber molecules. This eliminates the need to use chemical dye fixatives, again lessening the impact of the shoe line's manufacturing process.

Finally, all of the shoes produced by EcoDragon are hand sewn. This means that the natural shoes are durable as well as stylish. Furthermore, since the shoes are sewn by hand, there is no need to use petroleum products, glues and toxic chemicals. These reasons are why EcoDragon shoes are comfortable to wear as well as good for the planet.

EcoDragon Shoe Line
The EcoDragon shoe line all started with the Original Hemp Sandal. This sandal remains a top seller, but it is no longer the only shoe offered by the company. Other shoes in this collection include Hemp Clogs, BackSlides, EcoStyle, EcoCross, Nature Walk, Nature Wet, Back Sling and Hempadrilles. As you can see, EcoDragon offers a variety of shoe styles from basic sandals and clogs to casual business shoes.

Cel Enterprises is the company that owns the Chinese Laundry and it's a handful of other shoe companies. This company has been supplying retailers, boutiques and specialty stores with quality women's shoes since 1971. The founders of this company were Carol and Robert Goldman. Their current roster of shoe lines include: Chinese Laundry, On Your Feet, CL by Laundry, Little Laundry, A'Mano, Creative International and Passports.

Chinese Laundry
Perhaps the most popular line of shoes owned by Cel Enterprises is Chinese Laundry. This is a fashion shoe line that was launched in 1981. This line of shoes is known for its fashion-forward appeal and its celebrity-grade styles. Celebrities that wear shoes from this line include Kelly Clarkson, Hilary Duff and Paris Hilton.

On Your Feet
The junior shoe line offered by Cel Enterprises is On Your Feet. This line offers the same fashion forward aesthetic offered by Chinese Laundry, however, the shoe designs are more appropriate for young women who are in love with fashion and shoes. This line launched four years after Chinese Laundry in 1985.

Little Laundry
To get girls started off on the right foot, Little Laundry was launched in 2004. This is Cel Enterprise's girls' line of fashion shoes.

CL by Laundry
In order to stay ahead in the footwear industry you need to capture all the niches possible. It is because of this that CL by Laundry was launched in 2003. This line of shoes was designed to offer affordable - but still fashionable - shoes to women.

Passports
Passports is a line of shoes launched in 1985 for working women. The focus of this line was to deliver comfortable and simple shoes that still looked great.

Creative International
Creative International was launched in 1971. This was the company's original cost division. The focus of this line was private labels. Cel Enterprises marketed these shoe lines to volume retailers across the country.

A'Mano
In 1951, A'Mano was launched and later acquired by Cel Enterprises. This is a specialty shoe line that focuses on sophistication, class and style. Many of the shoes in this line are handmade. Shoe designs from this line are appropriate for evening wear and weddings.

Shoes have been an important part of human life since the beginning of fashion. They have allowed humans to travel over various terrains and adapt to life in a number of climates. However, shoes wouldn't be what we know them as today if it weren't for the shoe accessories that developed along with our foot fashion. Some of the most commonly used shoe accessories today include shoe horns, shoe trees, shoelaces and shoe inserts.

History of Shoe Accessories:

Shoe Horns
Shoe horns evolved along with leather and hide shoe designs. Their purpose was to help a person get their shoes on more easily. They were traditionally made from wood, however, wealthy shoe owners had theirs made from bone, ivory, silver and shell. Today, shoe horns are still commonly made of wood; however, they are also made from plastic, glass and stainless steel.

Shoe Tree
The shoe tree was a remarkable invention. This device, traditionally made from cedar, was designed to fit into shoes when they were not occupied by feet. The shoe tree helped the leather to keep its shape, and the cedar of the shoe tree absorbed both foot odor and moisture left in the shoe. Today, you can still find cedar shoe trees; however, plastic shoe trees are more common.

Shoelaces
Perhaps the oldest shoe accessory in the world is the shoelace. Shoelaces can be traced back to 3,000 B.C. Their purpose is to secure footwear to the person's foot. However, while used in primitive shoes, shoelaces were replaced during subsequent shoe design eras with buckles, buttons, zippers and other closing devices. They didn't really emerge as the leader of shoe closures until the 20th century.

Shoe Inserts
One of the latest shoe accessories to hit the shoe market is the shoe insert. Shoe inserts are designed to make the shoe more comfortable to wear. Common shoe inserts include cushions, orthopedic supports and lifts. Basic shoe inserts can be bought at department and shoe stores, however, orthopedic shoe inserts usually have to be prescribed by podiatrists.

The swinging sixties and seventies were decades where experimentation was big in fashion. One of the shoe styles that emerged from the fashion explosion that occurred during this generation was t*he go-go boot.* Go-go boots were revolutionary because they made women's boot fashions street wear instead of just functional, inclement weather wear.

Go-go Boots: The Design
Go-go boots were traditionally made from synthetic materials; however, modern variations also use natural materials like leather. They tend to be a low-heeled boot that can have a calf, knee or rise above the knee. They can be either form fitting against the lower leg, or they can be loose. Generally go-go boots designed for girls are looser fitting and have a flat or low heel, while women's go-go boots have a tighter fit and a higher heel. However, while two-inch Cuban heels have been used in a variety of go-go boot designs, the heel tends to be less than one inch.

Go-go Boots: Fashion
Go-go boots emerged back in the mid-sixties. Shoe designer Andre Courreges is given credit for the first go-go boots. These first boots were made from either vinyl or plastic and were generally white in color. The height of the boot complimented the shorter hemlines found in women's fashion during the 60s and 70s. The height of the boot's rise followed hemlines as they migrated up the leg. This was great for women who were a bit shy about exposing so much leg with daring fashions of the era. The boots provided significant coverage without having to sacrifice fashion forwardness.

Go-go Boots: Pop Culture
Go-go boots were very popular with young girls and women. They were popularized by pop cultural icons like Nancy Sinatra and Jane Fonda who both sported these boots. Nancy Sinatra promoted her single "These Boots Were Made for Walkin" by wearing a pair of sexy go-go boots, and Jane Fonda wore a pair in her sci-fi erotic film "Barberella." While not as popular as they once were, you can still see variations of go-go boots still making their way down runways around the world.

Today fashion luxury shoe lines are very much in style. Popularized by television shows like Sex and the City and movie stars, fashion luxury shoes are now just as much of a fashion statement as a person's clothing. This is a great time to be alive if you love exotic shoe designs that are crafted for luxury, elegance and intrigue. Three of the top fashion and luxury shoe designers in the world today are Elise Ferare, Guiseppe Zanotti and Claudio Merazzi.

Elise Ferare - Fashion/Casual/Contemporary/Luxury Shoe Designer

Elise Ferare is a contemporary shoe designer whose original shoe designs are very much a study in contrasts. Her designs routinely pair textural and style elements that play off each other, such as rough and smooth, edgy and traditional, and dark and light. Ferare likes to keep her shoe designs fresh and innovative and avoids subscribing to shoe fashion trends when at all possible. One of the things that make Ferare shoes unique, is their comfort, as Ferare believes that you "shouldn't have to suffer for fashion."

Guiseppe Zanotti - Fashion/Contemporary/Luxury/Dress/Evening Shoe Designer

Guiseppe Zanotti is an Italian fashion shoe designer that has continued the traditional of superior Italian shoe craftsmanship. Zanotti gained his footwear expertise by working with top Italian luxury shoe companies before starting his own line of designer shoes in 1994. Creative and artistic are the words that can be used to describe Zanotti's shoes. He draws his inspiration from the arts, music and cinema, where he says shoe evolution is charted. This is a shoe designer that is favored by celebrities.

Claudio Merazzi - Fashion/Luxury/Contemporary Shoe Designer

Claudio Merazzi is one of the most influential fashion luxury shoe designers in the world. Not only has he been the creative director for his own shoe line CLAUDIO MERAZZI, but he has also served as the creative director for Cesare Pariotti, Gruppo Esade and Oscar de la Renta. Merazzi gained his shoe design experience working with shoe designer legends like Casadel and Bruno Mogli. His shoe designs are known for their modern edge, unique shapes and innovative construction.

The history of shoes is littered with crazy ideas for footwear. Some of these crazy ideas last only a few minutes, while others spark fashion trends that last for years. One of the crazy ideas for footwear that seams to have stuck is the idea for Heelys. Heelys are shoes that have wheels that are built into the shoe's sole. The position of the wheel makes it possible for the shoe's wearer to roll, run and walk without having to change their shoes. What an invention!

The History of Heelys
Heelys are the brainchild of Roger Adams. This licensed psychologist invented these rollerskate/street shoes during what he refers to as his mid-life crisis. At the turn of the 21st century Adams was facing many challenges including a divorce and a stressful career. One day he was daydreaming and he thought how great it would be to be able to just shift your weight on your shoes and be able to roll away. That daydream turned into a multi-million dollar business in a matter of years.

In December 2000 Roger Adams opened his business, Heelys. He introduced his basic Heelys model at a trade show and he found a store that was interested in carrying his shoes. The first day that the store offered Heelys, their entire stock of the rollerskate street shoes sold out in a matter of hours. This sell out trend continued for months, and during the first year that Heelys were offered to consumers, over one million units were sold.

Heelys Models
The most popular Heelys model is the single wheel model. However, this is not the only option you have. Heelys also come in double wheel models, single wheel models with a grinding plate and Mack models with wheels on the sides of the shoe. One of the best features that all Heelys offer is the ability to remove the wheels and just wear the base of the Heelys as a great looking street shoe.

While Heelys are very popular with kids, teens and adults, they have also received some negative press because of their perceived dangerousness. However, this press hasn't dampened sales. As fashion trends change it will be interesting to see if Heelys are able to maintain their amazing popularity or if they will be replaced by the next great idea in footwear.

Shoe fashion in Europe has been very important throughout history. In England,
the capital of the shoe manufacturing industry has traditionally been
centered in Northamptonshire. This area is popular with shoe
manufacturers because it has all the ingredients needed for producing
shoes, including livestock, water and natural resources. This is where
the famous Padders shoe brand got its beginnings.

The Groocock Family Launches a Shoe Empire
The
Groocock family of Rothwell, England were retailers by trade. In 1905,
they opened a very successful retail store which was run by family
members. In 1914 the family branched out and started manufacturing
welted shoes. This was an interesting era to be in the shoe business,
because it was the height of the Edwardian era of fashion, which meant
that small feet were in fashion. The shoes
that were manufactured during this era by Thomas Groocock, the founder
of the T. Groocock & Co, ltd. company, were narrow and tight
fitting. Women of the day went to extremes to get their feet to fit
into the slim line shoes produced by this company including having
their little toes surgically removed.

The demand for Groocock
shoes was high from the get go, and by 1922 the family had to expand
their business by building a larger factory. By 1939, World War II was
impacting business all over the globe. The Groococks did their part for
the war effort by focusing their manufacturing efforts on army boots
and what they called men's "utility shoes."

After the war, the
company went back to producing high fashion shoes. In the latter part
of the 1950s they focused on pop culture fashion shoes like the
winkle-pickers and the beetle-crushers. The shoes manufactured by this
company were so popular that by 1959 they were manufacturing shoes
around the clock.

Padders Are Launched
The
Padders brand of shoes was launched in 1982 as the Groocock family
tried to redirect their shoe lines. The comfortable fit and extra
support provided by these shoes made them more attractive to the aging
communities of England, as opposed to the teens and twenty somethings
of Britain. This move was radical but smart, as the company has
continued to flourish even during a few downturns in the UK's economy.
Today Padders are manufactured, distributed and sold from a brand new
42,000 square foot building in Rothwell, as well as sold in 1,000
independent retail outlets scattered throughout the UK.

The history of shoes would not be complete without talking about Nike shoes. This shoe manufacturer has changed the way we not only view athletic shoes but also how we view athletes. Nike's sponsorship of athletes created many of the sports heroes of the 1980s and 1990s, and Nike continues to bring new athletes into the limelight. The history of this company is truly a rags to riches tale.

Nike's Modest Beginnings
Nike originally was called Blue Ribbon Sports, or BRS. This small business sold Onitsuka Tiger shoes (a Japanese brand) out of the back of the company founders Philip Knight and Bill Boweman's car at local track meets. After a half decade of selling from their car, the founding fathers of BRS opened their first retail outlet in 1966 in Santa Monica, California. By 1971 the company dropped the Onitsuka Tiger line and launched their own shoe line with the official Nike symbol, the Swoosh. The Swoosh first appears on "Nike," which was a soccer cleat.

Nike - The Goddess of Victory
In 1978 BRS was officially renamed Nike, Inc. The name "Nike," which had christened their first original shoe design, and now was the banner head of their company, was derived from the Greek goddess of victory. A fitting name for this sports shoe line that would eventually capture over 50 percent of the U.S. athletic shoe market.

Victory was a theme that Nike lived by over the next four decades. To market their products they sponsored top athletes in a variety of sports. These athletes not only wore Nike products, but they also were the spokespeople for the Nike brand. Nike sponsorships brought many winning athletes into the spotlight and created athletic superheroes that kids, teens and adults around the globe idolized.

Nike Products
Nike is responsible for some of the most popular athletic footwear and equipment on the market. Their brands include Nike Golf, Nike+, Nike Skateboarding, Nike Pro, Air Jordan and Team Starter. They also own the subsidiaries of Cole Haan, Umbro, Hurly International and Converse. With such a huge presence in the athletic shoe world, if you have bought a pair of athletic shoes in the last thirty years, chances are you bought a Nike brand.

Ugg boots have been a featured player in many popular magazines and runway shows. These boots, which are made from sheep's skin and wool, may look like a strictly winter item, however, when Hollywood and celebrity icons started wearing them, they quickly caught on as a year-round fashion item. While the popularity of this boot style has faded in and out in the context of the history of shoes, the controversy over the term "ugg" continues to this day.

The Beginning of the Ugg
Ugg boots are sheepskin boots that have a tanned leather outer, a fluffy, wool liner and usually a synthetic sole. The terms "ugg," "ug" and "ugh" have been used to describe this type of boot for decades. While ugg boots look like they came from Alaska and are primarily manufactured in the U.S, they actually originated in Australia where they continue to be manufactured today.

Trademark Controversy, What Can Be Called an Ugg
In 1971 the term "Ugh-boot" and several other related terms were registered with the Australian Trade Mark Registry by Shane Stedman. Several decades later he sold his registered rights to Deckers Outdoor Corporation, which is an American shoe manufacturer. After acquiring these rights Deckers Outdoor Corporation went on to register these terms and others with the U.S. Trademark Registry. However, this didn't stop many Australian manufacturers from continuing to use the term "uggs" and related derivations of this term, to describe their products.

In 2003, Deckers had had enough and threatened to sue these companies for trademark infringement. The Australian manufacturers, however, felt that the terms registered were generic terms that had been used for generations to describe traditional Australian sheepskin boots and filed their own legal actions. By January 2005, the Australian Trademark Registry had repealed the trademark protection for the terms "ug," "uggs" and "ugg boots."

Today if you buy ugg boots, there is no guarantee that you will be buying "Ugg Boots." To make sure you are getting the designer version, you will need to buy them from a Deckers distributor. However, if you are looking for the traditional Aussie ug boot, just look for a product with "ug" or "ugh" in the boot's name.

While today clogs generally refer to chunky, backless slip-on shoes for women, historically the clog was defined by both shape and material. Traditional clogs have a wooden sole, but those are rarely seen in today's fashion shoes. When they are, it usually has a bit of added rubber on the bottom for both traction and durability.

Although we generally associate clogs with the Nordic countries, wooden shoes that can be termed clogs have historically been worn all over Europe, including the British Isles and Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Greece, where they were most predominant in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today these wooden shoes often remain part of traditional ethnic dress and are still worn because they are considered to promote health. In some cases, the clog remains as a wooden over-shoe to protect a delicate and expensive footwear from mud and rain.

For those in the United States, clogs have two main associations. The first is clog dancing, which originated in Europe. Clog dancing is a competitive dance sport in both the United States and Europe, although the shoes usually used now do not visually resemble the historical wooden clog, but tend to look more like a men's dress shoe with a boxy toe and are very loud (thanks to wood or metal plates) when dancing.

Otherwise, when it comes to clogs, many Americans think of 1970s fashion, where natural fibers, ropes and wood were popular in all manner of shoes for men and women.

While some of today's clogs hark back to that retro 1970s look, clogs are now often made of rubber or other comfortable materials, appear in both vibrant and natural tones and bear little resemblance to their wood ancestors. Today's clogs appear in a range of heel heights, and some clogs can be appropriate for men and women, although the style is dominated by women's shoes.

Crocs and their imitators represent the most recent evolution of the clog. These shoes, which started as comfortable gardening shoes, have become a fashion trend for both genders thanks to their easy wear-ability, multiple colors, unisex design and futuristic shaping.

Learn how running shoes evolved throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Having a shoe designed specifically for running seems like a no brainer, however, running shoes really didn't get their start until the end of the 19th century. They then slowly evolved over the 20th century, leading to the huge explosion of running shoe technology and design options that are currently available. It is hard to believe that if running shoes had not been developed, we would be running in the flat soled tennis shoes.

The Birth of the Running Shoe

Running footwear had been almost non-existent prior to the late 19th century. In fact, many people ran in whatever footwear they had, including boots and sandals. However, in the 1890s the shoe manufacturer JW Foster and Sons, which eventually became the shoe company Reebok, developed the first official modern running shoe. This shoe had a tennis shoe outer with a lacing system and metal spikes attached to the sole of the shoe. The spikes were designed to give the runner traction and to help improve their overall running speed.

The Running Shoe Evolves in the 20th Century

By the early part of the 20th century, vulcanization revolutionized shoe manufacturing. Vulcanization was simply the process of melting rubber and fabric together. This molten mixture was then molded to create a sole for shoes that had a tread design. This design revolution made shoes lightweight, quiet, and flexible. It also provided the wearer with traction. Keds was the first American company to mass distribute the new "sneakers" starting in 1917.

In 1925 a German inventor named Adi Dassler, who founded Adidas, evolved the spiked running shoe design further by creating a series of running shoes. Each shoe design had a special hand forged set of running spikes and each design was made especially for a certain running distance. This was the first time designs were focused on whether the runner was a sprinter or a long-distance runner.

During the 1970s running shoes were designed based not only on the type of running the person did, but the running style the runner had. The three running styles that shoes were designed for included neutral runners, supernation runners and pronation runners. The final advancement that running shoes received during the 1970s was the use of ethylene vinyl acetate, also referred to as EVA. This material added an air cushion to the design of a running shoe providing runners with extra cushion and shock absorption when they ran.