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News - Learn about the secrets of the footwear industry!
Shoe Museums, a worldwide passion
Mar
How far can our shoe passion go? How many shoes are you able to imagine in a single room? We know that around the world there are museums dedicated to a lot of themes, but have you ever visited a shoe museum? Well, they exist, several in the world, and today on the EscapeShoes blog we’ll tell you about some of them.
Visiting museums when traveling is something very common, but… visiting a shoe museum? I never been in one, but after investigating a little bit about them, I’ll do it at first opportunity. The truth’s that there are many scattered all over the world, with huge collections of incredible shoes, mediocre shoes, shoes used by ancient civilizations, futurists designs and all kinds of tools connected to the manufacturing of shoes.
On today’s post, we’ll talk about some of them. We’ll start with one on the other side of the world:
With over 1500 pairs of shoes, this museum is in Manila, Philippines. It suffered floods and other natural disasters, but it continues to shelter a big part of the shoe collection of the former First Lady of Manila, Imelda Marcos.
A little over 70 km of Brussels, it’s this peculiar museum, in the city of Kruishoutem, Belgium. The most curious thing about this museum is that it’s in a spectacular building from 1973, surrounded by a gorgeous water reservoir, while its interior is a succession of luminous shelves in rooms with black walls and floor, which makes you feel like you’re in a sci-fi film… of shoes.
It’s the biggest shoe museum. Between its walls there are over 12000 shoes and items connected with footwear, from several origins. To visit it, you have to travel to Toronto, Canada. Due to the huge quantity of shoes, the exhibitions are renewed every once in a while, and only a fourth is permanent. In addition of seeing shoes with over 1000 years, you’ll be able to learn about the shoe history through its exhibitions.
Now in Spain, more specifically in Alicante, you can find a museum dedicated to shoes and to the awareness of traditional manufacturing techniques. It was inaugurated in 1992 and offers courses for those that wish to learn how to make shoes.
This shoe museum, which tells us how mankind has evolved through shoes, it’s in Mexico City, and has a collection of over 2000 pieces, with different origins and ages that go back to Ancient Egypt.
Thanks to museums like these, the history of shoes stays collected and kept so that we can learn which shoes were used by humans throughout time. In addition of being a small representation of each culture, shoes talk about the resources, the art and of the needs of each society. Not to mention the fashion of each era and country. Models with very elaborate designs, simple shoes, work shoes, shoes to climb mountains, to dance or even to walk on the moon, all of them were used by someone at some point, and their adventures are kept by the museums that shelter them now.
If you ever visit one, remember to tell us everything!
Meanwhile, visit EscapeShoes! It isn’t a museum, but we also have an amazing collection!
