- published: 29 Dec 2014
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Bast shoes are shoes made primarily from bast - fiber from the bark of the linden tree or birch tree: they are a kind of basket woven and fitted to the shape of a foot. Bast shoes are an obsolete traditional footwear of forest areas of Northern Europe, formerly worn by poorer members of the Finnic peoples, Balts, and Slavs. They were easy to manufacture, but not very durable.
Bast shoes have been worn since prehistoric times: wooden foot-shaped blocks (lasts) for shaping them have been found in neolithic excavations. Bast shoes were still worn in the Russian countryside at the beginning of the 20th century. Today bast shoes are sold as souvenirs and sometimes worn by ethnographic music or dance troupes as part of their costumes.
In Russian, they are called lapti (лапти, sing. лапоть, lapot'); this word is used as a derogatory term for cheap and short-lived footwear and also for uneducated people (лапотник, lapotnik: one who is too poor to afford good shoes and wears bast shoes instead).
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function. Additionally fashion has often dictated many design elements, such as whether shoes have very high heels or flat ones. Contemporary footwear varies widely in style, complexity and cost. Basic sandals may consist of only a thin sole and simple strap. High fashion shoes may be made of very expensive materials in complex construction and sell for thousands of dollars a pair. Other shoes are for very specific purposes, such as boots specially designed for mountaineering or skiing.
Shoes have traditionally been made from leather, wood or canvas, but are increasingly made from rubber, plastics, and other petrochemical-derived materials.
Until recent years,[when?] shoes were not worn by most of the world's population — largely because they could not afford them. Only with the advent of mass production, making shoes available very cheaply, has shoe-wearing become predominant.