National Shoe the World Day.

 National Shoe the World Day.

So where are you going to be on National Shoe the World? Will you be wearing high heels that make you feel in total charge of your destiny, will you be wearing shoes for rambling or hiking across vast swathes of the countryside, up hills and down hills, plodding your way through ravines, valleys, pathways, through dense forest, over rocks and stones, rock climbing over treacherous terrain or simply running for the bus or train. 

Indeed today is National Shoe the World and be prepared for a mighty trek because your feet are about to get the treat of their lives. They've pounded the pavements and narrow strips of land for so many years now that you'd think they probably deserve some kind of a break. But go ahead. Throw on that jacket or suit and keep walking since it's the finest exercise and you know your body will appreciate it afterwards. 

For hundreds of years men and women have never gone without shoe wear. It could be an urban myth but women just adore shoes. They always have done so. They wander around shoe shops with no other thought than to invest in as many pairs of shoes as they can. They try on those shoes  because they rightly believe that the shoes will give them stature, authority, a sense of power and smartness. Shoes give women elegance, a feeling of equality with men and a sense that they're just as good if not better than men. 

So around the world today men and women will be looking for slip on shoes, shoes with and without laces, sports trainers, plimsolls perhaps or, dare we say it, platform shoes if they still stock them. During the 1970s, platform shoes were de rigueur, highly fashionable in a way that Adidas clothing or Arctic rolls with delicious ice creams used to be so immensely popular in Britain. But shoes have always been a vital part of our character, defining our personality, identifying us from the rest of the crowd. 

As a child you can still remember your mum taking you to the local shoe shop during the school summer holidays and getting all fitted up for a decent and durable pair of shoes for the return to school in September. You would sit down, stick your feet on a measuring device, wiggling and squeezing your feet into a whole variety of the best, the worst and the plain awful. It was almost a standard procedure and you never questioned it for a moment. 

Back in the 1950s Britain seemed to give the world winkle pickers, shoe wear that became synonymous with the Mods and Rockers, a band of men and women who used to hang out quite casually and proudly in the coffee bars of Soho. Then they'd pop a couple of shillings into the juke box, comb their well-quiffed hair and dance to the dulcet tones of Bill Hayley and the Comets and Cliff Richard. Shoes are important to us because we probably think they're our personal statement, a way of attracting attention when the rest of the world may be ignoring us. 

So we get dressed in the morning for work, school or college and go through that familiar rigmarole. We pull on our shirts, trousers, coats, caps and hats since this is the course of action that comes naturally. Then there's a sharp intake of breath as we decide which kind of shoes we should wear. Do we go with the dark shoes with a hint of maroon, the brown shoes that scream modesty or the comfortable ones that just glide into your feet with not a hint of difficulty?

But why have they announced today as National Shoe the World Day? Quite clearly we've got enough shoes to be going on with and it's not as if we're off to the Lake District for the day. Maybe we take shoes for granted and don't really give them the time of day, oblivious to their enduring charms. They've been at the bottom of our feet for so long now that we'd be forgiven for being a bit blase about them. We traipse up and down shopping centres, walking endlessly down supermarket aisles searching for food, drink  and, quite recently, clothes as well. 

And then there are the people who used to polish their shoes religiously before setting out for work. They were the kind of men and women who were desperate to create an impression at a job interview. Then there were those who loved to swagger along the seaside promenade, puffing out their chests and demanding a second look because their shoes were designer shoes and cost a second mortgage. 

Most of us are accustomed to shoes because we've never really been without them. We sit all day in the office in them, marching around in them, running around in them, kicking them off in relief at the end of the day since they are now surplus to requirements. We hope that the shoes we've just bought will serve us properly and last for more than a year or two. We've become very attached to them and are now inseparable from them. 

Then there are boots which could be theoretically called shoes but are bigger than the conventional shoes. Boots are thicker, bulkier, harder wearing and accompany us on football pitches, facilitate long walks over boggy marshland and, in some cases, used to have zips. During the 1960s women used to wear colourful boots that covered most of their legs and office workers would don shiny black shoes that would sparkle in the Summer of Love during the same decade. 

More recently shoes and boots have become essential, eye catching attire, something to be seen in and boast about quite enthusiastically. Shoes are our overlooked friends that take us on long train journeys and never object to another punishing regime of traipsing across roads, over bridges, quaint country lanes and then give us the time to look at the natural wonders of the world. We walk the walk and keep walking without realising or acknowledging the debt we owe to shoes.

But above all shoes keep our feet warm in cold, wintry days when the ice and snow are thick on the ground. Shoes are renowned for their resilience, the way they just seem to make us feel ten feet tall when we might have been demoralised by some minor setback. We look down on them and they're a wonderful morale booster. You may have failed that job interrogation or a school exam but you still feel a million dollars because you've just acquired a magnificent pair of Doc Martens or a stylish pair of Guccis that look positively handsome.

So if you're feeling a sense of war and battle fatigue just stare across at your hallway or wherever you leave those much loved shoes and just admire your taste and discrimination on the subject of shoes. You've saved long and hard for them and, quite frankly, you deserve them. Maybe we've just conveniently forgotten about shoes since for the last two years we haven't really been anywhere as such. Go on. Dig out those hiking boots and set out for the rugged coastlines and those adorable beaches. Shoes make us feel important and, surely there has to be something to be said for that reason alone. Have a great National Shoe the World Day, everybody.