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High Heels

Where to find some of the world’s most famous shoes

shoesPhoto: Ashrafur Rahman

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nce the largest producer of footwear in the world, Brockton boasts an obscure but extraordinary museum of shoes in the 1767 homestead of a shoemaker named Jeremiah Beals, tracing the evolution of American shoemaking from Indian moccasins to walking shoes. But the secret is the celebrity footwear including Ted Williams’ baseball spikes, shoes worn by Charles Lindbergh, President Gerald Ford’s golf shoes, running shoes used by presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, comedian Jay Leno’s loafers and the size-24 shoes worn by Primo Carnera, world heavyweight champion Italian boxer of the 1930s.

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It wasn’t until around the Civil War that shoemakers began to produce left and right shoes. Before then, rich people paid others to break in their uncomfortable shoes.