hi! it may be worth x-posting this question to /r/Archaeology or /r/AskAnthropology

I remember reading about the discovery of the "world's oldest shoe" in the news a few years back. It was a right leather shoe from 3500 BC discovered in Armenia. The article states that 7,000-year-old sandals have been discovered in Missouri, and that physiological evidence in surviving fossils suggests that humans began wearing shoes (or something protective on their feet) 40,000 years ago.