Most shoemakers use a last—made traditionally of wood, but now often of plastic— on which to form the shoe. Some lasts are straight, while curved lasts come in pairs: one for left shoes, the other for right shoes.
Traditional shoemakers used to use more than 15 different techniques of making shoes. Some of these are: pegged construction, English Welted (machine-made versions are referred to as "Goodyear Welted" after the inventor of the technique), goyser welted, Norwegian, stitchdown, turnout, German sewn, moccasin, bolognese stitched, and blake-stitched.
Some types of ancient and traditionally-made shoes include:
- Furs wrapped around feet, and sandals wrapped over them: used by Romans fighting in northern Europe.
- Clogs: wooden shoes, often filled with straw to warm the feet.
- Moccasins: simple shoes, often without the durability of joined shoes (although different types of leather have different wear characteristics).
Sewing machine for shoemaking and shoe repair, and also bag and heavy fabric repair work. This machine is manually operated with a hand crank. The foot can be turned in any direction which changes the direction of the material feed. This machine is owned by a roadside shoe repairman in Haikou, Hainan Province, China. (A piece of strap is placed between the foot and work surface.)
In modern times current crafters, in developing regions or supply constrained areas may use used or surplus car or truck tire tread sections as an inexpensive and plentiful material resource to make strong shoe soles or sandals with.
The Society for Creative Anachronism offers some advice about making period shoes for people engaged in the leisure activity of historical reenactment.
Traditional shoemakers still exist today, and create custom shoes containing no plastics, paper, or nails (which rust, eventually).
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