Best of Sketchfab: Historical Shoes

Hi everyone, I’m Alban, the co-founder and CEO of Sketchfab. I’ve always had a passion for shoes. Not sure where it’s coming from, to be honest. 🙂 I even started making shoes! I also love 3D capture, and I have scanned a lot of shoes, which you can explore here. I regularly follow and check what other shoe scans are published by the community, and one category I’m quite fascinated by is historical shoes. I find that shoes always tell a story about the person wearing them, the era, and the place. That’s even more true for older shoes, which were less standardized than they are now. I’ve been collecting 3D scans of historical shoes on Sketchfab for a while now—you can explore the collection here, and see some of my favorites below.

Leather shoe from the Mary Rose by Swansea University

With 1.2M views, this shoe is one of our top 20 most viewed models ever! It is coming from the recovery of the Mary Rose, a Tudor warship that sank in 1545 during the Battle of the Solent.

Priest Karol Wojtyła’s sports shoes by Malopolska’s Virtual Museums

Karol Wojtyła, aka John Paul II, was known to be very athletic. I like how these shoes remind us that famous/important people do sports, too. This scan is very well made, like the rest of Malopolska’s Virtual Museums’ models.

Ski boots worn by Seba Johnson by The Smithsonian Institution

Seba Johnson was the first black woman to ski at the Olympics and the youngest alpine ski racer in Olympic history. This scan comes directly from the Smithsonian Institution collection, and is available under a CC0 license, in the public domain.

Paire de chaussures d’Arégonde by Rmn-Grand Palais

Aregund was the oldest French Queen we know of, dating back to 570!

Hand Painted KC Chiefs Shoes- by John Sebelius by Whynotmake

I have always wanted to try painting on sneakers, and I find those pretty cool.

Baby bootie by Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

This baby bootie is from the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, and I just find it quite cute.