Shoes are as old as clothing itself. Primitive people wrapped animal skins around their feet, and found that hides were warm and comfortable. Not long after, they began to color and preserve the pelts with vegetable dyes and natural oils. In ancient civilizations, shoemaking was a well-established craft. Egyptians wore sandals, and Mesopotamians wore soft, simple shoes. Even the Neolithic people of early Switzerland made shoes, as evidenced by a wooden model of a foot, called a last, that has been found.

The Greeks were adept shoemakers. Urns and vases show craftsmen with a variety of tools. They not only improved the craft of shoemaking, they changed the technique as well. Ancient Asian and Egyptian cobblers worked on the ground, and either squatted or knelt above their task. The Greeks worked at a bench, and because of this were able to develop more sophisticated...