The search for a comfortable pair of shoes isn’t new. The first detailed shoe-sizing system was introduced in 1688 in England and then in 1880 in America.
By the 1920s, the much-talked about shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were introduced to shoe stores to help determine fit. The customer would place his or her feet in the opening of the fluoroscope while remaining in a standing position. They then were able to look through a viewing porthole at the top of the device down at the x-ray view of their feet and shoes. The bones of the feet were clearly visible, as was the outline of the shoe.
However, the shoe-fitting fluoroscope did have its disadvantages, because the fit of a shoe is also very dependent on the flesh size of the foot. Unfortunately a two-dimensional device cannot fit a three-dimensional foot. For centuries, shoe fitters have sat on fitting stools and palpated the foot. They understood that their attention to the customer’s foot and gait would guide them to the supportive needs of each individual’s foot.
