The Chinese shoe fad went through many changes as China forwarded on into the future. The footwear is certainly an intresting facet of the many aspects of Chinese culture.

According to archeologists, the first shoe was made during the stone age. During this time, many of the shoes were really clothing made out of animal hides. Once the "shoe" was made, they would wrap them around their feet and secure them with leather thongs. Later, in the process of making footwear, ancient people learned to use bone needles, to dry and hammer animal tendons thing enough to use as thread, to dye animal with amnimal fats and plant juices, and to rub the hides with their hands to make them soft. This practice formed the basis of the method through which shoes would later be made.

The earliest pair of leather shoes extant in China is a 4,000-year-old pair of boots made from sheep hide, worn by a mummified female corpse discovered in the ruins of the ancient kingdom of Loulan, in the deserts of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The lower and upper parts were sewn together using thick hide threads.

The ancient nomads of north China wore boots made from a variety of materials. Tibetan boots were made of yak hide, the Oroqen people used roe deer hides, and the Hezhen people used fish skin. The Huns were more sophisticated in their boot-making methods and used sheep wool rolled into felt as their basic material.

Leather boots were first introduced into the Central Plains area by King Wuling of the State of Zhao during the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.). In 325 B.C., threatened by contending states, King Wuling decided to replace his warring chariots with mounted archers. The king dispensed with the traditional loose robes and wooden soled, flax-fabric shoes normally worn in battle, dressing his cavalrymen instead in tunics, pants and boots modeled on the attire of the northern nomads, thus making his troops one of the strongest and best protected of the time.