Measuring Feet: A Brief History

Send a textIn this episode, Barbara and Teja dip their toes into the surprisingly strange history of shoe sizing. Did you know that grains of barleycorn were once the standard unit for measuring feet? Shoe sizes were based on cereal math. Then there was the mid-century trend of using x-ray machines in shoe stores. It seemed like a way to find your perfect fit. It turned out that prolonged radiation exposure wasn’t the foot-care breakthrough we hoped it would be.Come for the barleycorn, stay for the vintage tech that really should stay in the past.Find us on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok: @loidunk