A Collection of Shoes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ballet shoes

Women began to perform ballet in 1681, some twenty years after King Louis XIV of France founded the Académie Royale de Danse. At that time, ballet shoes had heels, which made leaps almost impossible. The first person to wear a non-heeled shoe was a mid-18th century dancer called Marie Camargo. After the French Revolution, heels were done away with entirely.

The birth of the modern pointe shoes, which make dancers appear weightless and sylph-like, is attributed to the famous early 20th-century Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova.

Traditional pointe shoes are manufactured more often than not by a method known as 'turnshoe'. In this process, each shoe is assembled inside-out, and then turned right-side-out before it is finished. While pointe shoes are manufactured in a variety of colors, they are mostly coloured varying shades of pink.

Answer: Klompen

Clogs are a type of footwear that are either made from wood or have some wood component. Through the ages they have been popular in many parts of the world in varying forms. The oldest remaining pair of Dutch clogs - or klompen - is believed to have been produced around 1230. Historians are fairly certain that they were around even before this - however since they were made entirely of wood, it is thought earlier versions would have rotted away.

Wooden clogs were designed as a practical foot covering which gave both protection and comfort from the harsh elements found in nature including snow, mud, manure and water. Because of their specifications, clogs have been officially accredited as a 'safety shoe'. They are generally made from poplar or willow.

Along with tulips and windmills, clogs they are considered to be a national symbol of the Netherlands. The Dutch produce around three million clogs a year which are sold either as souvenirs or as footwear.

Answer: Decorative perforations or holes

Broguing is essentially the ornamentation of shoes with heavy perforations or holes. It describes the pattern of holes that are on the outer leather of a pair of shoes. These perforations were originally seen on outdoor Scottish and Irish boots. They were there to allow water to escape the leather so the shoe or boot could dry more quickly. Today, brogues are worn indoors or out, and the perforations are purely decorative.

There are different levels of brogues, and it is how much perforation that is on the leather pieces that determines the level of brogue. Also, broguing more or less out-trumps other descriptions - I.e. any shoe with broguing is called a brogue, even if it's an Oxford.

Answer: Doc Martens

'Bovver boots' was British slang for boots (often that were steel-toed) that were perceived to be worn by people looking for a fight, or a bit of 'bovver' (or 'bother'). When Dr Martens, which have been around since 1947, became the shoe of choice for the rebellious, including skinheads in the 1960s, they became associated with violence and were often referred to as bovver boots. The skinheads though generally called them simply 'Docs' or 'DMs'.

Doc Martens are still hugely popular and in the past have been worn by The Cure, The Clash, Madonna, Madness, the Sex Pistols, the Spice Girls, Avril Lavigne and Gwen Stefani.

Dr. Martens was listed on the London Stock Exchange in January 2021 at a value of £3.7bn.

Answer: Catalan

The term espadrille comes from the Catalan word 'espardenya', which alludes to a southern-European plant known as 'esparto grass'. This grass was originally used in the making of espadrilles as well as ropes and baskets.

Espadrilles can either be flat or high-heeled and usually have a canvas upper and a rope sole at the sides. They will often they have laces that are wrapped around the ankle so the shoe can be held in place. They have been worn in Europe for at least 4,000 years and were originally favoured by peasants, as they were cheap to produce.

These days the soles of espadrilles are usually made from jute, a vegetable fiber that grows in countries such as India and Bangladesh. Though most commonly associated with Spain and France, espadrilles are common throughout the world as a summer fashion item.

Answer: Protect your shoes

Galoshes are a waterproof overshoe specifically designed to slip over shoes to protect them from the elements.

Some people confuse rain boots with galoshes, however rain boots are actually intended to protect the feet and lower leg, whereas true galoshes are used for protecting the footwear itself. These are usually made of thin rubber as once the wearer is indoors, they need to slip them off and store them somewhere, such as a handbag or pocket. They can be transparent, brightly coloured or simply black.

Galoshes are also sometimes known also as gumshoes, dickersons, rubbers, or overshoes. In the U.S, they are often just called boots or rubber boots.

The name 'galoshes' originated in the Middle Ages and came from a shoe with leather uppers and soles carved of wood. These were called Gaulish shoes or 'gallicae'. Galoshes rose to fame in the U.S. in 1936, when Fred Astaire informed Ginger Rogers 'You know, you ought to be wearing galoshes' in the classic movie 'Swing Time'.

Answer: Thongs

Flip flops or 'thong' sandals have been around for thousands of years and are thought to be one of the oldest forms of footwear. In Egyptian times they were made from papyrus and palm leaves, but almost any material could be used: in Africa they made them from rawhide, in India they used wood, and in Mexico they used the yucca plant.

Modern flip-flops became popular in the U.S. Australia and NZ when soldiers returning from World War II brought Japanese 'zōri' - a type of flip flop made from rice straw - back with them. As they became more popular the sandals were manufactured in brighter colors. In the 60s flip-flops became associated with the casual beach lifestyle of California and became known as a casual accessory.

In Australia a pair of thongs range vastly in price, but you can you can buy a rubber-soled slipper-style pair for about half the price of a cup of coffee. They are called thongs because the Y- shaped strap is called a toe-thong.

Answer: True

As strange as it might seem, shoes were only made for left and right feet for the majority of the world's population in the early-mid 1800s. Prior to that, shoes were worn on either foot as they had no differentiation between them. These shoes were called 'straights' and in fact, people were encouraged to wear one shoe on one foot for the day, then swap that shoe to the other foot the following day. This was so that the shoes would wear evenly.

One of the reasons shoes were made like this was the cost factor - it was cheaper for the cobbler to make them like this as they only needed one 'last' (a mechanical form shaped like a human foot). It was the advent of factories which could mass produce shoes that changed the shoe industry into having specific shoes for the right foot and the left foot.

Answer: Chinese women

Lotus shoes were specifically worn by Chinese women with bound feet. The ideal size for women's feet in China when lotus shoes were made was just 3 inches (about 7.6 centimetres). The shoes were usually made in the home by the women who had to wear them. Generally constructed from cotton or silk, they were small enough to fit in the palm of a hand.

The first recorded foot-binding case occurred in the 10th century, during the Five Dynasties and Ten States period. It is thought that the custom started because the emperor of the time had a favorite concubine, a dancer called Precious Thing. When she danced, she did so with her feet bound into a hoof-like shape while on a gilded stage that was in the shape of a lotus flower. After hearing of how enamoured the emperor was of this concubine, the practice became very fashionable among other concubines.

By the mid-17th century, every girl who wished to marry, except the very poor or fisherwomen (who had to have balance in order to fish on boats) had her feet bound.

The (what is now considered barbaric) practice did not stop until the early-mid 1900s. When it did, after much public outcry, men who previously wanted women with bound feet eschewed these women, as they were embarrassed to be seen with them.

Answer: Crocs

So, it would seem there are two camps for Crocs - those who love them, and couldn't imagine life without them, and those who quite literally wouldn't be seen dead in them.

Love them or hate them though, the company does enjoy quite the success story. Originally dreamt up by a trio of friends who went to Mexico for a holiday, one of the men - Scott Seamans - had bought along a pair of clog-like shoes with him on the holiday. He said he wanted his friends to try these shoes out, as he thought they'd be perfect for boating. The other two men were somewhat sceptical - saying they looked comfortable enough, but they were also exceptionally ugly.

Nevertheless, Seaman's friends wore the shoes for several days, after which they agreed that Seamans might be onto something. The trio made 200 pairs and took them to Fort Lauderdale where they sold all 200 pairs, much to their surprise. They learnt quickly that it wasn't just boat owners buying them as they'd imagined, but people from hospitality and medical facilities as well.

From there, the brand Crocs grew quickly. The brand fared particularly well during the Covid epidemic, since many people were home a lot and simply wanted comfortable shoes while they were in lockdown. (Which is the best place for Crocs. [Wait, did I say that out loud?])