Boots, Boots and More Boots: 3 Must-Know Facts

Fact #1: Did you know that the first portrait of people wearing boots is said to have been found in Spain dated sometime in between 12000 to 15000 BC? The fresco showed of a man wearing a pair of boots supposedly made of skin while the woman was wearing something made of fur. A couple of years later, actual boots were found inside a tomb of a pharaoh in Egypt. After some tests, they were said to have been made around 2140 to 1785BC . According to studies, boots were initially regarded as fashionable items that everybody who is anybody is bound to wear.

Fact #2: Centuries after boots have transcended its image from being a fashionable item to a work/ protective gear. Today there are boots made of rubber and other materials suited for almost any line of work. One of the all - time favorites are those Twisted X Boots commonly worn by cowboys.

Fact #3: There is such a thing called "boot anatomy". This is in fact the artisans guide to making good quality boots. Like any other things, boots are made of 8 specific parts. They are:
1. Shaft/ Top - This is where the decorations are mostly imprinted and sewn into. By standard, they should be 12 inches high.
2. Leather - This is the traditional material used to make boots. For leather, the rarer it is the more expensive it gets. Currently, majority of the boots are made from calfskin leather. The more expensive sort on the other hand is made of alligator skin.
3. Stitching - This is the method how the boots are put together. By standard, two stitches would be fine but boots with more stitching tend to be more expensive.
4. Vamp - The vamp is the lower part of the boot. This part is traditionally cut in one piece of leather and is assembled in a series of steps.
5. Pulls - Pulls can be sewn anywhere on top of the shaft but in more popular varieties like the Twisted X Boots for example, pulls are sewn on both sides of the shaft. Their purpose? As implied, they help the wearer pull the boot up as he/ she wears it.
6. Piping - Part of the boot where both end of the shafts are put together.
7. Toes - Boot toes can have different shapes and sizes. Two of the most common are: pointy toes preferred by fashion driven people and round toes that are the choices of conservatives.
8. Heel - Like any shoes, determine the height of the shoe. The heel can also be broad, narrow and can have heights ranging from one up to six inches.

Those are some facts that even you may not know about boots. After this, pretty sure you'll never look at boots the same way again.