The Shoes of the Iceman

Manolo says, behold! The Shoes of the Iceman.

Lined with hay and held together by a net of rough string, the leather shoes look bulky, itchy and downright uncomfortable. But if they were good enough for Oetzi, the 5,300-year-old man found in an alpine glacier in 1991, they’re good enough for the modern foot, insists Petr Hlavacek, a Czech shoe expert who has created replicas, taken them out for a walk and pronounced them far better than most modern footwear.

“These shoes are very comfortable. They are perfectly able to protect your feet against hard terrain, against hot temperatures, against cold temperatures,” he said, showing off the replicas in his office at Tomas Bata University in this eastern Czech town.

Despite their flimsy leather soles, the shoes offer a good grip and superb shock absorption, and are blister-free, Hlavacek said.

It’s like going barefoot, “only better,” he said. “In the Oetzi shoes, you feel something like freedom, flexibility.”

Like going barefeeted, only you look like the dork.

Manolo says, this shoe it could be the bestseller with the hippies of the crunchiness, but only if the hay it is replaced with the hemp.

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