[mdp2021]

> historically "a good pair of shoes" was always something people appreciated throughout all times and cultures

(It seems I am indulging in anecdotes a bit in this page, but anyway) In the portrait of "Lenin" Ulyanov by Paul Johnson in Modern Times, you will read

> Lenin left Zurich to return to Russia on 8 April 1917. [...] At Stockholm, comrade Karl Radek bought him a pair of shoes, but he refused other clothes, remarking sourly, ‘I am not going to Russia to open a tailor’s shop’.

[cess11]

At the time clothes were typically made to last and did, with shoes being a weak point due to the harsher wear and tear of rubbing against the ground.