Why were shoes invented? Millions of years ago people had tougher feet so why invent shoes?

Question

Think about it, cavemen etc all managed just fine without shoes. i'm assuming they had tough feet, so why invent shoes. If they had tough feet then there was no need to invent shoes, so how come they are used universally now?

Answer 1

What an interesting question! I'm sure once our earliest ancestors started roaming through forests or over rocks they would have had the brain to wrap their feet in large leaves to protect them. Then with animal skins - and probably realised that the softness and toughness of leather would make excellent protection for their feet. Imagine running through sharp brush barefoot, or over snow and ice; I don't think that their feet would have been all that tough. I did see a programme about a tribe on an island today where their feet weren't disturbed at all with the sharp twigs and thorns on the ground; the British reporter couldn't manage a short walk in bare feet! (He did toughen up, though!)

Here is one very interesting page on the history of shoes:
http://www.shoeinfonet.com/about%20shoes/history/history%20your%20shoes/history%20your%20shoes.htm

Answer 2

Shoes Invented

Answer 3

Um... Dinosaurs didn't become monkeys!! Dinosaurs extinct, and monkeys evolved from something else. Well, birds and lizards like animals are believed to be evolved dinosaurs, but not monkeys. Evolution is a theory of something observable (and kind of provable too). Was it really Einstein that talk about evolution in the first time or was it Charles Darwin, anyway?

Answer 4

Sorry to burst your bubble, but some "cavemen" did have shoes. People in tropical climates can get by without shoes, but in temperate and arctic climates, shoes are of great help in cold weather.

Answer 5

Their feet weren't tougher, they weren't any different from ours. Walking barefoot gives you slightly tougher skin but not feet made out of shoe leather. When you're in water they soften. When they get cut or stabbed by thorns they get infected.

Answer 6

You basically have to fight me to get shoes on me :P

I only wear them to go shopping or something (school)! And my feet are a bit tougher than normal!

Answer 7

3 Reasons. 1, we were only from 6000 years, 2 cause after first sins our bodies over time are braking down and weakening so our feet need them, third we are lazy and rather have a fashion statement.

Answer 8

Their feet were tough, but still vulerable to cuts and snow and heat. I bad cut could kill you. Walking in the water and coral reefs slice you up good.

Jeanette

Answer 9

Tough feet are one thing, but when humans increased their range into northern europe, they needed to keep them from freezing as well!

Answer 10

Presumably their feet weren't so tough that they didn't get cut walking over sharp stones.