My Shoes

I wear homemade sandals and moccasins.  This has several benefits:

• Custom fitting keeps my funny shaped feet in their natural alignment.
• Custom fitting nearly eliminates callouses and hot spots.
• Shoes with less support strengthen the feet, ankles, and the muscles that remotely operate the foot.
• Sensory feedback from thin soles improves my gait patterns naturally.
• Improved gait patterns relieve stress issues further up the support chain in the legs, hips and spine.

Barefoot/minimalist shoe Info Sites:

• Harvard Research
• Society For Barefoot Living
• The Running Barefoot
• Huaraches Group
• Why Shoes Make Normal Gait Impossible
• http://barefootrunning.com/

Minimalist Shoe suppliers:
You may note that most of the high end minimalist running shoes are missing from this list.  As I am not a runner, these types of shoes don't match my needs.

• Croc Liners
• Aqua Socks
• Jazz Shoes
• ToeSalad Directory

Custom Shoe Makers:

• http://www.jannfrench.com/
• http://www.medievalmoccasins.com/

Custom Shoe Patterns:

• http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/moccasin/moctext.html - several types, minimal directions
• http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/native/skills/moccasins.htm - The Ojibway or Pucker-top Moccasin and The Sioux or Hard-sole Moccasin, detailed directions.
• http://www.inquiry.net/outdoor/winter/gear/moccasins/index.htm
• http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/moccasin/mocinstr.html - One-piece, Soft-sole, Center-seam Moccasins
• Map of Native Moccasin types in the USA and southern Canada
• http://www.natureskills.com/how_to_make_moccasins.html - scout project, touted as comfortable
• Side Laced Shoes and Boots (historical pattern) 
• Simple Shoe Making - Fisherman's Sandal
• How to make felt boots
• Soft Sole Plains Moccasins
• Celtic Boots
• Sparrowhawk Keltoi Moc (Pattern for sale)
• Craft Manual of North American Indian Footwear
• crazycrow.com - Making Native American Indian Moccasins
• Waraji (Japenese Straw/Rope Sandals)
• Huarache Examples
• Invisibleshoe.com: How To Make Huaraches
• Footwear of the Middle Ages
• Paleo Planet: One-Piece soft-soles, detailed instructions
• http://www.laohats.com/studypages/ulanbaator_boot.htm
• Footwear of the Middle Ages
• The Manufacture Of Boots And Shoes: Being A Modern Treatise Of All The Processes Of Making And Manufacturing Footgear | by F. Y. Golding
• The Honourable Cordwainers' Company Guild Library
• Shoe making books
• Last Making Resources
• Casting your own last
• Historical shoes discussion
• Nativetech - several moccasin patterns in overview with essay
• Modern Moccasins
• instructions for “the use of cowhide moccasins as a substitute for shoes” #cw150
• http://www.knieriem.net/category.php?id_category=11
• BC Egyptian Shoes
• http://www.historyanew.com/index.php?pr=Historical_Shoes

Shoe Making Videos:

• Shoe making class makes period German shoes
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ibvlxuvR2A
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iQVTbRIlak
• Sebastian Tarek - Shoemaker
• http://www.youtube.com/user/customboots

Shoe Making Techniques:

• http://carreducker.blogspot.com/
• One-piece lasting

Materials:

• Leather Supplies
• http://www.hideandfur.com/ 
• http://www.twobears.com/ 
• Making Felt from Fleece
• Felt Manufacturing
• Wool Felting Properties
• Felting and Spinning
• Felting Forum
• Interlocking or Making a Viking Whipcord
• Interlocking

Potential materials:

• Equine Medical Putty

Related:

• Native Snow Shoe Pattern

Historical Shoes Sites:

• Footwear of the Middle Ages
• www.raisedheels.com