I’m an amateur historian who is particularly interested in historical costuming. I’ve also done some reenacting.

I was at a museum recently and was looking at some Norse shoes from about 800 and realized that all of my re-enacting shoes have modern soles and I also have to put the best and thickest inserts in there to save my back. This lead me to some questions about shoes. I hope this is the right subreddit…

From what I’ve seen historical soles are pretty much just leather. This doesn’t seem like it would provide any good traction, particularly in the mud. Is there evidence of other sole materials?

What about comfort? Is there any evidence of arch support? Or maybe evidence of back problems due to lack of arch support?

Am I wrong in thinking that historical shoes would’ve been slippery and uncomfortable and- other than for warmth- it would have been better to just go barefoot?

Obviously these answers can very wildly based on both when and where, but I’m curious generally so all answers welcome