By Sbaitz (Own work) Wikimedia Commons

Those of you who are old as the hills, like me, will probably remember the theme song to the show “My Three Sons,” which you can view here. In that intro, the shoes on the right with the dotted pattern are known as brogues.

In medieval Scotland and Ireland, laborers punched small holes in the tops of their shoes, which allowed water to drain out when walking through swampy fields. Brogues are worn today as part of business attire, and the perforations are decorative.

Another kind of shoe worn by peasants in medieval Europe was the “sabot,” which was made of wood; wood was inexpensive, easy to clean, and reasonably comfortable. The word “sabotage” (meaning to deliberately destroy property) may or may not have originated from disgruntled peasants revolting against their feudal lords and trampling the crops with their sabots.

By Olof Jernberg (1855–1935) via Wikimedia Commons