Shoe blog

Friday Shoe History Corner: Fakir Shoes

I know we complain about painful shoes, but again, our kind of torture doesn’t even begin to approximate what the wearer of these shoes must have felt like. Linda O’Keeffe describes these Indian bed-of nails thongs (19th century) as “sandals…worn by devout Hindus on special pilgrimages to fulfill a vow to the gods for a favor bestowed.” But if you ask me, a favor that needs to be repaid by trotting for days in shoes like this is no favor–it’s more likely a curse. Just my two profane cents!