Welcome to the first day on the job building America's second tallest skyscraper, the Cloud Tickler.
We have a few safety scenes to go over before we... Excuse me?
What's your name?
Uh, me?
Yes, you.
Oh, I'm Joy.
Why?
Hello, Joy.
What are those you're wearing on your feet?
Shoes?
Those aren't shoes.
Are those shoes?
There are two things I wear on my feet.
I'm pretty sure that's shoes.
Is this a shoe-free construction zone?
No, the first rule is always wear shoes, which is why I think those are flippers or snorkeling.
Definitely not construction site appropriate shoes.
Are flippers not the shoes of the sea?
Is the sea not the inverse of the sky?
That's beautiful, but you can't wear flippers.
What about these?
Those are ballet shoes.
Still not the shoes you need here.
Do you have any boots?
Absolutely.
Those are elf boots?
Don't know.
These work?
Those are cowboy boots.
I think I'm going to have to ask you to leave.
Well, fair enough, I guess.
I brought my pink slippers just in case I got fired.
When you're fired, you get a pink slip, not a pink slipper.
You know what?
Never mind.
Okay, bye-bye.
Hello.
And this is my co-host for the day, Daria.
Yep, we're wearing matching shoes for the occasion.
Kind of weird that we both had sparkly Velcro cheetah shoes just ready to go.
You know what they say.
Great minds, shoe shop alike.
Yep.
Yeah, something like that.
Absolutely.
Well, before we set off on our search for the first shoe, I want to hear more about you, Daria.
I know you're sporting the sparkly cheetah look today, but what's your second favorite pair of shoes?
Probably my black winter boots.
Black winter boots?
And do you wear, I mean, it's winter here in the Midwest.
You get a lot of snow.
Do you get a lot of use out of those boots?
Yes.
And they're sparkly?
No.
Do they light up?
No.
Do you usually go for comfort or fashion in your shoes?
Kind of both.
I like them to look more natural, but I also want them to be comfortable.
Yeah, yeah.
Can you imagine what it would be like if we just didn't have shoes?
Probably painful.
Painful, yeah.
Walking around on gravel all the time.
Do you think it would change your life in any way?
Probably.
I probably wouldn't get up from the couch.
No.
You would just stay home and walk on carpet.
But there are so many things I would not do without shoes.
Like mountain climbing.
Or riding the subway.
Shoes keep our feet clean and dry, though.
And they keep us from getting hurt.
But there must have been a time where people didn't have shoes, right?
Yeah, there must have been a first pair.
And I'm guessing they weren't sparkly with Velcro.
Well, not everyone can be as fashionable as us.
Too true.
Too true.
To help us find the first pair of shoes, we asked one of our reporter friends to investigate.
Today, we're joined by our one and only shoe correspondent, Nancy Yang.
Hey, everybody.
Hi, Nancy.
Hello.
So, before we get started, how old do you two think shoes are?
20,000.
20,000?
I'm going to say 40,000 years old.
You, Joy, are spot on.
Oh, no way.
Yes, yes, lucky guess.
Or maybe you're just super, super smart.
I'm really smart.
You're super smart.
Right, but some archaeologists think shoes were in use as far back as 40,000 years ago.
That's way, way before the pyramids were built, which are some of the oldest known structures still around today.
Wow, humans must have gone through a lot of shoes since then.
But humans didn't always wear shoes, right?
You're right.
We used to walk around barefoot all the time.
Do you guys like going barefoot?
Yes, only when my feet are sweaty.
When it gets real hot, it's nice not to have shoes on.
I agree.
And also like walking around in grass.
Like I like walking around my backyard with no shoes on.
But you know, going barefoot is not always ideal because, like you guys were saying earlier, it can be kind of painful.
But, you know, we humans, we like to create all sorts of tools to make our lives easier, right?
So eventually we discovered that shoes could help protect our feet from things like hot sand, sharp rocks splinters, and even keep them warm and dry.
So shoes it was.
So what did the first pair of shoes look like?
It's hard to say for sure since most of them didn't survive through today.
But we do have some idea of what people wore in the early days of shoes.
The oldest pair that have been unearthed are called the Fort Rock Sandals, which were found in Oregon in 1938 by an anthropologist named Luther Cressman.
Wow, there sure is a lot of ash in this cave.
Cressman was exploring Fort Rock Cave and inside there was a layer of ash from a volcano eruption that happened thousands of years ago.
Just gotta keep digging.
That's my motto.
When you're in a hole, keep digging and all your problems will be solved.
And then he found something he had never seen before.
Wait a minute.
What's this?
At first glance, Cressman's discovery might have just looked like a bundle of ropes.
But on closer inspection... This looks like a pair of shoes?
And that was just one of several dozens of shoes that Luther and his crew found in Fort Rock Cave, possibly worn by the indigenous Klamath and Paiute tribes.
Those sandals date back over 9,000 years.
They were made of sagebrush bark and twine.
They were closed-toed shoes with flat soles and looked like they were made of tightly wound rope.
What do you think, Daria and Joy?
Would you like to wear these shoes?
Do they sound comfortable?
No.
Not at all, I would say.
It sounds like ropes, like you're just wrapping rope around your feet.
Well, comfortable or not, most early shoes were made of plant fibers, scraps of animal skin and tree bark.
Of course, as humans evolved, so did our shoes.
As we entered the Middle Ages, when royalty and knights were the power players, shoes increasingly became fashionable and served as status symbols.
In Europe, the krakow or poulain were long, pointy-toed shoes.
Some were a foot, a foot or longer.
That's crazy.
Like, how would you play soccer?
I don't think you could.
I bet the ball would pop.
I bet you would pop all the balls, yeah.
Right, these fancy shoes were worn by people with money and power.
Working people, on the other hand, wore round-toe shoes.
Then, in the Renaissance, when artists and writers like Leonardo da Vinci and William Shakespeare were crafting their masterpieces, Europeans fell in love with another outrageous type of shoe, the chopin, which were basically platforms to the extreme.
People who wore chopins wanted to stand out, and they did.
Some shoes were as tall as two feet!
As you can imagine, it wasn't the easiest thing to walk in.
Wearers regularly had attendants walking next to them for balance, so people were essentially acting as canes.
Whoa!
Of course, these crazy shoes are mostly for the rich and powerful.
People who were poorer typically had simpler shoes, shoes that were made for working in the fields or that could get dirty.
On the other hand, the wealthier classes could indulge in say, silk or velvet shoes, because they never had to worry about walking in the mud.
So why not?
Have you guys ever had a pair of fancy shoes that you had to work hard to keep clean?
Maybe a year ago I had these pennies that...
I thought were really nice and they were the first shoes that I ever wanted to actually try to keep clean, because all my other shoes always got dirty or had holes in them, just because of how rough I was with them.
Yeah, yeah.
I always had shoes that had holes in them because I was so rough.
My mom always said I was a tomboy.
And so I like to play like hard, you know.
And so.
But then also like, if you have white shoes, any shoes that are like a light color, I have to try so hard to keep them clean because, just like leaving your house to do regular activities, you get dirt and dust all over them.
So you got to clean them as soon as you get home.
So that's one of the reasons I like wearing black shoes.
That's smart.
Now it shouldn't be surprising that as shoes became fancier, so did the rules about who could wear them.
Take high heels, for example, which were originally worn by men.
In 17th century France, Le Roi Soleil, that is, the Sun King, Louis XIV, began his 72-year reign.
He had a taste for luxury and, actually, you know what?
I'll just let Louis tell you himself.
Ahem.
Yes, that would be King Louis XIV.
Oh, sorry, King Louis.
How are you, Your Majesty?
Oh, it's not a bad day.
I had breakfast in the garden this morning, spoke to a few friends.
After that, I set for a portrait.
I just got a new pair of shoes that I want the painter to depict.
Everyone must see them.
Oh, yeah?
Let me guess, red heels?
Yes.
Nancy, Nancy, Nancy, of course they are.
That's my trademark, you know.
People see red heels, they think Louie.
Just like when people see bunny slippers, they think Nancy.
Well, maybe I need an upgrade.
Red heels would look so good on me, right?
What do you think?
Oh, no, no, no.
That won't do.
You see, only people who are in my court.
That is my circle of friends, my closest confidants can wear shoes with red heels.
It's pretty exclusive.
I mean, if everyone wore shoes with red heels, they wouldn't be special.
Well, aren't we friends?
I mean, we are, right?
I think I hear someone calling for me.
What's that?
You need me?
I'm on my way.
Sorry, gotta run.
Wait, Louie!
Louie!
Wow, that was cold.
Seriously.
But hey, you can get some sparkly Velcro cheetah shoes like us.
I am in.
Yes!
Now, at this point in history, shoemaking was all mostly done by hand by a shoemaker, also known as a cord wiener.
Since they were so much work to make, good shoes were expensive.
And that was just another way shoes exposed the divide between the rich and the poor.
The rich could afford high-quality shoes, the poor could not.
But all that was about to change, thanks to a man named Jan Matzeliger.
Ooh, I can't wait to hear more, but hold that thought.
I think it's time for a little break.
Agreed.
I need to rest my feet.
Well, while you do that, how about we play a game, Daria?
Of course.
Of course.
Cool.
It's called First Things First.
Here's how it works.
We have a list of three inventions and we have to guess which came first, which came second and which came most recently in history.
Like the classic chicken or the egg problem.
Yes, but thankfully, we actually have the answers for this game.
They're sealed in an envelope here in the studio.
So Daria and I will be guessing along with everyone listening at home.
You want to hear today's free invention?
Yep, lay it on me.
Okay, it's cowboy boots, snowshoes, and clogs.
Oh, goodness.
Do you know what clogs are?
Mmm...
No.
Well, they are a type of slip on shoe that were made either partly or entirely from wood, which doesn't sound so comfortable.
So what do you think?
Which one of these came first?
Probably the clogs, then the cowboy boots, and then the snowshoes.
That's a good—yeah, because I think clogs would be kind of first just because of wood.
Yeah.
You know?
We didn't have, like, all of the materials we have now.
Yeah.
And I think—I've seen snowshoes before and those are like the.
You know those kind of—they look like rackets.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
And I wonder if those are made out of wood.
They must have used them way back in the day.
But I think maybe I'll say clogs, snowshoes, boots.
Okay.
I feel good about that.
Do you feel good about yours?
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
Write down your answers if you're playing along at home.
And Forever Ago will be right back.
With more fancy footwork.
Did you know that people wore shoes for thousands of years before shoe sizes existed?
Legend has it that shoe sizes got started in 14th century England when King Edward II wanted to order new shoes for his young son.
My beautiful baby boy must look sharp.
Usually a shoemaker would measure a customer's feet themselves, but The feet of my wee son are too royal to be inspected by a lowly shoemaker.
So, it's said that the king measured the length of his son's feet in barleycorn.
That's a type of grain, like wheat.
One barleycorn, two barleycorns, three barleycorns.
Hold still.
People had been using barleycorn to measure things for a long time, but King Edward made it official.
I hereby declare that three barleycorns make an inch.
And, believe it or not, shoe sizes in the UK are still based on this barleycorn unit of measure today.
How retro.
And we're back.
You're listening to Forever Go.
Where we explore the history of the stuff around us.
And today, that stuff is shoes.
Oh, yeah.
Speaking of cool shoes, I think it's time for a wardrobe change.
Let's do it.
Time for our second pair of matching shoes.
Knee-high, fur-lined boots with bells.
Ah, much better.
It's always so cold in the studio.
Yeah.
All right, now that that's taken care of, it's time to finish our game of First Things First.
Today's three inventions are cowboy boots, snowshoes, and clogs.
And I guessed clogs, cowboy boots, and snowshoes.
And I guessed clogs, snowshoes, cowboy boots.
So do you have the answers in the envelope, Daria?
Here you go.
I'm so excited I can't even contain it.
Here it goes.
Okay, wow, look at this.
The very first thing is snowshoes.
They were invented around 4000 BC in Central Asia.
Oh, wow.
That was longer ago than I thought.
I thought they were made in like...
The 1900s.
Yeah.
Maybe 1800s.
Even further back.
The first ones were just some pieces of wood with some straps to tie to your feet.
And there's a drawing here.
Looks like giant paddles kind of.
Yeah.
And then the second one, the second answer was clogs.
And so I guess we were kind of both wrong about that.
But clogs were in the early 1300s when they started showing up in Holland.
Traditional clogs were made from a square block of wood that was carved and smoothed into a shape you could fit your foot into, which I don't know if I would wear that, Daria.
What about you?
Probably not.
I would probably trip, fall, and maybe break a few toes.
Yeah, it just sounds heavy.
And then last but not least is cowboy boots, which was made mid-1800s.
Cowboy boots have a lot of shoe ancestors, like the boots worn by Spanish vaqueros, basically Spanish cowboys or wellingtons, which was a style of boot popular with wealthy British aristocrats in the early 1800s.
That's interesting.
Have you ever had a pair of cowboy boots?
Yeah, I had pink cowboy boots that my grandparents got me when I was younger.
And I've never worn them because they were always too small.
I mean, too big.
Yeah.
And then when I did decide to wear them, they were too small.
It's like you missed your chance.
It was like so close, so close.
And then that was fun.
Thanks for playing with me, Daria.
Sure thing.
All right.
I think it's time to step back into the history of shoes with reporter slash shoe correspondent Nancy Yang.
Ooh, nice boots, you guys.
Thanks.
Here's your pair.
Yes!
Okay, when we left off, I was telling you about a guy named Jan Matzeliger.
Yeah, you said he was about to change the shoe game for everyone.
Yes, back to Jan.
He was born in 1852 in Dutch Guyana, the South American country that's now known as Suriname.
By the late 1870s, he had made his way to Lynn, Massachusetts.
It took Jan several years to learn English and it was hard to find work as a black man, but he was determined to make it in his new home.
This was in an era called the Gilded Age of America, when the economy was doing great.
The Transcontinental Railroad had recently been completed, linking the East Coast to the West.
Alexander Graham Bell had just invented the telephone.
Hello!
And Thomas Edison found a way to give us a longer-lasting light bulb.
It was during this period that Jan got a job at a shoe factory as an apprentice in Lynn, Massachusetts, where the shoe business was booming.
And quickly, he found out that shoemaking was a slow process.
You can say that again.
Oh.
Hello, Jan.
I was just talking about you.
Would you mind telling everyone how shoes were made before your big invention?
Oh, it was a chore, let me tell you.
Shoes were still made mostly by hand.
First, molds of a person's feet were made with wood or stone.
We called these lasts, which we used to size and shape the shoes.
We had machines to cut and stitch the leather, so that was helpful.
But shaping and attaching the body of the shoe to the sole was done by hand.
It was a whole thing and really slowed down the process.
It took an hour to attach just five.
On top of that, the people doing this work had a pretty special skill set.
So they could charge a lot.
Great for them.
Bad for anyone who wanted a thrifty pair of kicks.
And that's where you come in.
Yep.
I decided there had to be a better way.
Jan would work 10 hours a day at the shoe factory and then he'd come home to study English and work on his designs for his invention.
It was no easy task, and everyone told me it couldn't be done.
But I worked hard, and I kept my designs top secret.
Jan studied the lasting process at the factory and he used his spare money which I didn't have much of to buy materials and parts to build a prototype.
After five years, Jan was finally ready to submit his design to the US government to patent it all 15 pages long.
It was so complicated that they didn't believe it would actually work.
So they sent someone to visit Jan and see his machine in action.
Of course, it was a real deal.
I built a lasting machine, one that quickly attached the top of the shoe to its sole.
My machine could produce 10 times what a human could in one day.
And there's the game changer.
This lasting machine was able to bring affordable shoes to the masses.
A human could only last 50 shoes in a day.
Jan's machine could do up to 700 shoes every day.
Goodness.
Which means prices dropped.
Some people say as much as 50%.
And suddenly, good shoes weren't just for the rich.
Regular people could afford them too.
Yep.
So next time you're putting on your shoes, think of me.
Unless your shoes stink.
In which case, think of literally anyone else.
Well, that's the shoe horn.
Got to get back to work.
You know how to make shoes for the entire world, Nancy?
How?
You take it one end step at a time.
Later, everyone.
See you later, Leon.
Get out of here with those jokes.
So, the machine that made your shoes is probably a descendant of Jan's invention.
Even my jingly boot?
Yeah, but even so, I think the shoes we wear today would look super foreign to him.
Like your boots or stilettos.
You know, the ones with the really thin high heels or even the sneaker.
Big squishy rubber soles.
Could he have imagined that?
Both of those appeared in just the last 150 years.
And you know.
Looking at the ways our shoes have evolved over time, you can see a reflection of our history there.
Think about World War I. Before the war, shoes were fairly snazzy.
Think bold colors with lots of embellishments like buttons and beading.
But when the war broke out in 1914, most of the leather was needed for the war, so people switched to making canvas shoes.
And as men shipped off to fight overseas, women began taking on traditionally male jobs like working in factories, which meant a shift toward more comfortable working shoes for women.
What about after the war?
Yeah, could you tell it had ended by what people were wearing?
You could.
The war ended in 1918, and the roaring 20s began soon after that.
People felt more freedom to do whatever they wanted and lots of people learned fab dances like the Charleston, which included things like kicking the legs back and forth quickly and energetically.
Good thing the popular shoe style for women at the time were heels with straps.
It helped people's shoes stay where they belonged, on their feet.
If you ask me, shoes can tell us a lot about the people wearing them, how they spend their time and the world they live in.
So, what do your shoes tell me about you?
Maybe that I'm not good at choosing good styles, so I just choose neutral colored ones.
Neutral colored ones because they go with everything.
That's actually really smart.
That's incredibly smart.
But I think my shoes say that, you know, I'm always on the go.
I'm always going somewhere.
I'm always working and getting in my car, running around with the dog or just being outside.
So I think that's what my shoes say about me.
What about you, Nancy?
Well, I like to wear a lot of like flat, comfortable shoes, kind of like you, because I'm always on the go.
I work in a newsroom so when things get crazy I'm always like running from one room to the next and I have to have shoes that are super comfortable and like won't fall off my feet.
So flat, comfortable shoes are kind of my go-to.
But you know, every once in a while I like to dress up a little bit too, so I kind of opt for a shoe that really stands out.
Like, maybe a pair of red shoes?
Uh-uh-uh-uh-up.
But remember, no red heels.
That's my thing.
Okay, okay, King Louie.
Royals.
Sheesh.
Well, I feel like we've walked a couple thousand miles through shoe history.
Thanks for all that info, Nancy.
You're welcome.
I hope you both had a heely good time.
See what I did there?
See you.
Bye.
See you later.
Bye.
See you later, Nancy.
We have come a long way since the Fort Rock cave sandals.
Or since King Louie's red heels.
Human beings have made some crazy shoes over the years.
Like sneakers, clogs, and flip-flops.
We made light-up shoes.
And Crocs.
What kind of shoes do you think the future holds, Daria?
Probably like shoes, that It's kind of like a hoverboard, but like it makes you float up so you don't even have to walk.
You can just, like, lean forward and you just float there.
And you just, like, glide.
Yeah.
Oh, that's a great idea.
I would buy those shoes.
I would, too.
Sign me up.
Well, we asked our listeners to dream up some futuristic shoes, too.
And they had no shortage of ideas.
Invisible shoes, oh yeah.
So like one of those shoes from back, from the future, like if it's too big it makes it small and then it could tie your shoes for shoes in the future you probably have like magnetic, like shoelaces, or Make your feet invisible.
It can make your whole body invisible, too.
Like you probably just like press, like this button on your shoe and then like just the like shoelaces or whatever, just pull together tightly, as tight as you need it.
Like, every time you, like, run or something, you can go back through time.
Sometimes you jump or leap to the future.
Some amazing shoe ideas there.
One thing I didn't hear?
Bacteria shoes.
Probably because bacteria don't have feet.
Oh, no, no, no, no.
I'm talking shoes made from bacteria.
Hold on.
Before you gag, let me explain.
Lin Yingyao was part of a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that wanted to solve a common foot problem.
Everybody knows if you go on a run or go on an exercise.
Your feet are the most exhausting part, or at least one of the most exhausting part.
And we wanted to Make a beautiful shoe and adaptive and smart shoe to make your feet comfortable.
A lot of people sweat a lot in their feet.
Sweaty feet are a problem.
Okay, I'm with you so far.
Awesome.
So Lin Ying and her team set out to make a shoe that would help solve the sweaty foot problem.
They took a specialized bacteria and put it into fabric.
Now, the cool part is this bacteria is super sensitive to moisture.
When it's in a wet environment...
Like near a sweaty foot?
Exactly like that.
When it's near a sweaty foot, the bacteria expands.
When things dry out, it shrinks back down.
So Lin Ying and her team use this bacteria-laced fabric to make little nickel-sized panels on running shoes.
And these panels change when you sweat.
Basically, they open and close depending on the sweat and also the temperature of the skin.
They will open up to help you to get rid of the excessive sweat and heat, and then they will close again once you lose enough sweat.
So it's like a tunable fabric.
So imagine that.
Shoes that automatically open up a vent when you sweat.
How cool is that?
It sounds amazing.
No more sweating feet.
No more sweaty feet, yeah.
But now it gets even better.
So, in addition to opening and closing, the bacteria they used was able to wait for it glow in the dark.
Dun dun dun! when you are sweaty, basically glows more intensively.
You can imagine you go on a run in the night.
It'll not only like help you to get rid of the sweat, but also glow in dark.
So that glowing part was genetically engineered out of the natural bacteria.
So Daria, I want to know, would you wear bacteria shoes?
Of course I would.
It would help so much with my feet.
They're sweating right now.
So they would come in handy right now.
Yeah.
If I looked under this desk, would your feet just be glowing?
Maybe.
Well, Lin Yingyao and her colleagues only made a prototype of the shoe.
It isn't for sale yet, but maybe one day.
Hopefully.
Yeah, hopefully.
Can you think of any other uses for fabric that opens and closes or glows when you sweat?
Maybe for shirts for around your armpits.
Yeah.
Or when you're running or like you're jogging around.
You don't have to come home to your family sweating and stinky.
Oh, I love it.
It's good for everyone, the whole family.
Well, we've been all around the world today.
From Fort Rock Cave in Oregon, where the oldest known shoes were discovered.
To 17th century France, where royal fashionistas declared themselves the fashion police.
We also heard about some incredible bacteria shoes.
Gross, but useful.
Do you have the next big foot fashion idea or a question for us?
Head to foreverago.org and tell us about it.
Forever Ago is brought to you by Brains On in American Public Media.
It's produced by Alyssa Dudley, Molly Bloom, Mark Sanchez, and Sandon Totten.
We had engineering help from Veronica Rodriguez and Parker McDaniels.
Production help comes courtesy of Lauren Dee, our fact checkers, Ryan Katz.
We want to give a special thanks to Eric Ringham, Sid Raskind, Ned Liebrich-Stryker and Jeffrey Bisoy.
Is there anyone you want to thank today, Daria?
I'd like to thank my father, my mother, and my brother just for me and my family.
That's awesome.
That's very sweet.
You know, I was thinking about our next matching ensemble.
What about red heels?
Ooh, Daria, I like that.
What did I say?
King Louie, I hate to break it to you, but a lot of people wear red heels nowadays.
Not just royalty.
Preposterous!
Unacceptable!
Call my royal guards, I simply will not stand... Some people just aren't into matching, I guess.
Now, about those shoes...
