Custom shoemakers, create or use lasts that are fit to a specific customer’s foot. Today, wooden lasts often are used only for making bespoke, or custom, shoes. This made breaking in a new pair of shoes rather painful at times. Prior to this, the shoemaker would use the same last for the left and right shoes. It took until 1850 before it was common to have different lasts for the right and left foot. Specific lasts like this are a fairly recent invention to the history of shoes and shoe making. Even stilettos are made starting with a last. Basketball and running shoes have different designs. For example, the design for a boot last would hug the in-step for a closer fit. The shape and size of the last depended and continues to depend on the type of shoe being made. Plastic lasts did not become common until the 1960s. These materials also retained their shape when they came in contact with materials like wet leather. Durable materials like cast iron and hardwood were used to make lasts because they could endure the stresses of shaping and stretching the shoe or the pounding of machinery as the process became more mechanized in the 19th century. Cordwainers and cobblers, however, both used lasts.
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