The development history of Dutch wooden shoes museum

Wooden shoes, windmills and tulips are the "three treasures of the Netherlands". Among them, wooden shoes, like windmills, are the product of the Dutch adapting to the geographical environment in their struggle with nature. The Netherlands is a "low country". Many great rivers in Europe enter the sea through the Netherlands, which is influenced by the humid temperate maritime climate all the year round. Almost half of the land is submerged in water. It is precisely because of such conditions that the Dutch invented wooden shoes more than 500 years ago.

Characteristics of wooden shoes

Dutch wooden shoes are made of poplar, which are not easy to crack, deform, waterproof, muddy and breathable. People constantly find many advantages of wooden shoes in the use process: wearing hardwood shoes on muddy land is particularly light and neat, raw materials are cheap, easy to make, moisture-proof, easy to clean, and can play a role in labor protection. As a result, farmers stuffed their shoes with things like straw, which can keep out the cold and prevent freezing, and is comfortable and durable. Wooden shoes have been handed down like this. Today, we can occasionally see that some Dutch farmers and fishermen still wear wooden shoes.

The value of wooden shoes

Wooden shoes are the "quintessence" of the Netherlands, the most national handicrafts and the epitome of national customs and culture. Over the years, wooden shoes have earned hundreds of millions of dollars for the Netherlands and become the treasures of heads of state and politicians. In the eyes of foreigners, Dutch wooden shoes are just a handicraft. In fact, wooden shoes have important practical value for the Dutch, at least in history.

Today, the practical value of Dutch wooden shoes has been greatly reduced, and few people wear them. On the contrary, tourists like it so much that it has become a must-buy souvenir, because the wooden shoes are lovely in shape and look like a boat. They can be used as decorations and vases. Even the Dutch are reluctant to throw it away. If you go to Uludan and Magan, the city is full of people wearing wooden shoes. Another important reason is that wooden shoes are indispensable engagement gifts for the Dutch.

Production of wooden shoes

In the era without machinery, wooden shoes were all made by hand. Although wooden shoes are small and simple in style, it is not easy to make them fit well. If you want to make some patterns on wooden shoes, you need to work harder. Therefore, it takes a week to make a pair of exquisite wooden shoes. In today's mechanical production, three pairs can be made in one minute, which shows the power of machinery. A good shoemaker is actually a sculptor. For example, in Dutch history, it is said that there were two brothers named Weitzyeth. Their shoe-making skills are superb. No matter what the customer's foot shape is, Weitzyeth brothers' shoes will always fit perfectly. The two brothers usually use various tools or machinery for preliminary processing, and finally finish the production of shoes by hand.

At present, there are 20 wooden shoe factories in the Netherlands with an annual output of about 4.5 million pairs. One-third of them are actually worn and the other two-thirds are sold as souvenirs. Wooden shoes became souvenirs in the 1960s. They were produced outside the Netherlands. Later, with the improvement of the automation of shoemaking technology, the production cost was greatly reduced, and finally the Dutch themselves began to make wooden shoes for handicrafts.

There are wooden shoes everywhere

In the Netherlands, after the baby is born, parents should prepare a pair of small wooden shoes for the baby to show that as a Dutch, they should accompany the wooden shoes for life. When young Dutch men fall in love, they should find a way to measure their girlfriend's foot shape and size quietly, give her a pair of wooden shoes and engrave his girlfriend's name. When getting married, the husband gave his wife wooden shoes as a symbol of love and put them on for her personally. Wooden shoes are also gifts for relatives and friends in Dutch daily life. If someone gives you a pair of wooden shoes that you can wear casually, it means that you are his most valued friend.

Since these wooden shoes are so important, we should work hard. But because it is not easy to make wooden shoes, the Dutch made them under the guidance of teachers when they were primary school students. When they grow up and accumulate more experience, they may be able to make better wooden shoes and the road to marriage proposal will be much smoother. Now, if you visit a Dutch family, you will often see a pair of beautifully made wooden shoes in the most conspicuous place in the living room. Needless to say, this pair of wooden shoes is one of the engagement gifts of the year, and it will not reduce the romantic feelings of the year because it is outdated.

In windmill village, people will see an oversized wooden shoe, which is three meters long, carved from a whole piece of wood and painted yellow and red. It is the largest wooden shoe in the world. We also visited the workshop for making wooden shoes with great interest. The workshop area is not large, only more than 20 square meters. No machinery and equipment, no technological process, all hand-made, similar to the original workshop. During the performance, the staff explained the origin, evolution and development of wooden shoes. Visitors can also pay for newly made wooden shoes on the spot.

The so-called "wooden shoes" have long gone beyond the category of wood. There are dozens of materials such as gold, silver, copper, aluminum alloy, diamond, crystal, jade, jadeite, agate, plastic, rubber, glass and stone. There are travel shoes, spikes, roller skates, roller skates, stilt shoes, hiking shoes and so on. The "wooden shoes" of various materials presented to the Netherlands by heads of state, presidents and members of the royal family in the world over the past century are among the best.