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70 free Shoe trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
64 free shoe trivia questions with answers. Everybody wears them and almost nobody knows where they came from. This quiz covers footwear from the 5,500-year-old shoe found in an Armenian cave to the $28 million ruby slippers, taking in Persian cavalry heels, Louis XIII's red heels, the sabot that supposedly gave us 'sabotage', foot binding, the barleycorn behind your shoe size, and the brand stories of Nike, Adidas, Puma, Converse, Dr. Martens, Birkenstock and Crocs. It starts easy (why sneakers are called sneakers, what a wellington is named after) and works up to the details sneakerheads and fashion historians argue over: how much Nike paid for the swoosh, which Pantone shade Louboutin owns, what size Robert Wadlow wore, and how many pairs Imelda Marcos really left behind. Free to use for a fashion quiz, a shoe-store event or a pub round. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on footwear history, sizing and the brands themselves, and each question carries its source. No recycled listicle errors.
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Q 01The world's oldest known leather shoe, about 5,500 years old, was found in 2008 in which country?
Armenia
It is roughly a modern US size 7, and was preserved under a thick seal of sheep dung.
Q 02The earliest known footwear, 10,000-year-old sagebrush-bark sandals, was found in a cave in which US state?
Oregon
They were dug out of Fort Rock Cave in 1938.
Q 03Ötzi the Iceman's shoes from around 3300 BC had bases made from the skin of which animal?
Bear
Deerskin side panels and a bark-string net finished the design; the Areni-1 shoe is about 200 years older.
Q 04UK and US shoe sizes are spaced one 'barleycorn' apart. How long is a barleycorn?
A third of an inch
Continental Europe uses the Paris point of two-thirds of a centimetre instead.
Q 05The metal foot-measuring tool found in shoe shops is named after its inventor. What is it called?
The Brannock Device
Charles F. Brannock came up with it in 1925.
Q 06Robert Wadlow, the tallest person in recorded history, wore what US shoe size?
37
He stood 8 ft 11.1 in and the International Shoe Company supplied his footwear for free.
Q 07The 10th-century cavalry of which empire wore heeled boots to keep their feet in the stirrups?
Persian
Emissaries of Abbas the Great brought the fashion to Europe in the early 17th century, and men wore them first.
Q 08Which French king introduced the red heel to court, before his son restricted it to himself and his circle?
Louis XIII
Louis XIV then outlawed red high heels for anyone outside the royal court.
Q 09By 1580 a person of wealth or authority was described with what shoe-related phrase?
Well-heeled
Even men wore heels by then; the tall, thin stiletto did not arrive until 1950.
Q 10Chopines, platform shoes that became a status symbol in Venice, were typically how tall?
7 to 8 inches
They were created in Spain in the 15th century before spreading across Europe.
Q 11The 15th-century pointed shoe called the Crakow is thought to be named after a city in which country?
Poland
Kraków was then the Polish capital.
Q 12In 19th-century China, roughly what proportion of women were estimated to have bound feet?
40-50%
The ideal 'golden lotus' foot was about three Chinese inches; the last new case was reported in 1957.
Q 13In what year did the new Republic of China formally ban foot binding?
1912
The ban was barely enforced; the practice faded over the following decades.
Q 14A false story traces 'sabotage' to workers in which Belgian city throwing sabots into machines?
Q 21Which kitchen appliance did Bill Bowerman use in 1971 to create a new grippy sole for track shoes?
A waffle iron
It was his wife's; the result became the 1972 'Moon Shoe'.
Q 22What per-game NBA fine did Jordan's black-and-red Air Jordan I supposedly incur in 1985?
$5,000
Nike agreed to pay and turned the 'Banned' story into an advertising campaign.
Q 23The Air Jordan 'Jumpman' logo comes from a photograph taken before which event?
The 1984 Summer Olympics
Co Rentmeester shot it; a pair of Jordan's 1997-98 Air Jordan 13s sold for a record $2.2 million in 2023.
Liège
The real trail runs through French labour slang; Émile Pouget wrote of 'saboter un travail' in 1897.
Q 15Why were soft-soled athletic shoes nicknamed 'sneakers'?
The soles let the wearer creep up quietly
The Boston Journal was already using the word in 1887 as 'the name boys give to tennis shoes'.
Q 16British plimsolls got their name because the band above the sole resembled a line on what?
A ship's hull
If water rose above the rubber line, your feet got wet, just as with the load line on a ship.
Q 17The earliest rubber-soled athletic shoes, made in Britain in 1876, were designed for which sport?
Croquet
The New Liverpool Rubber Company called them plimsolls or sandshoes.
Q 18Converse All Stars were the official shoe of the Olympics for how long?
1936 to 1968
Adding Chuck Taylor's signature to the ankle patch made them the first celebrity-endorsed athletic shoe.
Q 19How much did Nike pay Carolyn Davidson for designing the Swoosh in 1971?
$35
She was a Portland State design student; in 1983 Phil Knight gave her a diamond Swoosh ring and 500 shares of stock.
Q 20What was Nike originally called when Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman founded it in 1964?
Blue Ribbon Sports
The company took its later name from the Greek goddess of victory.
Q 24How much did the Air Jordan line sell in its first year?
$100 million
Nike introduced the shoe in April 1985, named for the Bulls' rookie.
Q 25Adidas acquired its three-stripe logo from Finnish brand Karhu for €1,600 and what else?
Two bottles of whiskey
That was in 1952, three years after Adi Dassler registered the company name.
Q 26Adi Dassler's brother Rudolf founded a rival company after their feud. What is it called today?
Puma
He first called it Ruda; their home town of Herzogenaurach became 'the town of bent necks' as people checked strangers' shoes.
Q 27Which American sprinter did Adi Dassler persuade to wear his handmade spikes at the 1936 Berlin Olympics?
Jesse Owens
Four gold medals later, the Dassler name was known to athletes worldwide.
Q 28Which brand introduced the first sneakers with Velcro straps instead of laces, in 1968?
Puma
They caught on in the 1980s, particularly with children and the elderly.
Q 29How did Christian Louboutin create his first red-soled shoe in the early 1990s?
With an assistant's red nail polish
The colour is now trademarked as Pantone 18-1663 TPX.
Q 30In 2012 a court ruled that Louboutin owns the red sole trademark except when what?
The whole shoe is red
That let Yves Saint Laurent keep selling all-red shoes.