It is often said that imagination is the stepping stone to human progress, and I must say that this theory is quite fitting for me now.

I tried many methods to make a suitable pair of shoes. Until one day, I discovered an inconspicuous wild grass by the lake.

This grass is called jointed grass because it looks a bit like a pen holder that can be pulled out; in my hometown, it's also called pen holder grass.

I originally only intended to smoke one of these herbs to play around with, but when I saw the plug-in structure of this thing, an idea popped into my head.

I've been struggling with how to make shoes waterproof by sewing, since water is unavoidable where I live, whether it's raining or snowing.

If we change our approach and make the shoes in two parts, wouldn't that solve the waterproofing problem?

I plan to create a structure similar to horsetail to achieve a waterproof effect.

To achieve a waterproof effect, these two parts need to be made as a whole. I plan to make a basic shoe first.

The piece of poplar wood I used to make the shoes was cut into a flat surface on one side of the thick wood to make the sole of the shoes.

Because I wanted the shoes to be more slip-resistant, I deliberately made the cuts a bit rougher during the chopping process. Next, I crafted a semi-circular chisel and a rounding tool.

I placed my foot on the wood to compare it, and then sawed the wood to a length slightly longer than my foot.

Make a mark at a suitable position in the middle to back of the wood. I checked the circular mark with my foot; it should be large enough to fit my foot inside.

The marked spot is where the shoe shaft is located.

I started working on the piece of wood with a chisel and a gouge.

Poplar wood is lightweight, so while it's not considered a top-quality material for carving, its soft texture makes it easy to carve.

However, cork also has its drawbacks. Its wood fibers are not as dense as those of hardwood, so if too much force is applied during carving, large pieces of wood may break off, affecting the finished product.

Therefore, this material is generally only used by beginners to practice carving, mainly because it is easy to process and inexpensive.

I was very careful when I was chiseling, only chipping in a little bit at a time, afraid of damaging the whole thing.

After chiseling a hole in the wood, I started using a shovel to carefully remove the sawdust from the wood, making it hollow.

When hollowing out the wood, I try to avoid breaking the log used to make the shoe upper. I keep hollowing out until the log is so thick that you can see the slightly translucent shoe upper through it.

I put my feet in to try on the shoes, and they felt a bit small and tight.

Fortunately, I had left enough log to keep my feet on the ground, so I continued clearing a distance with the digging tool. This time, I tried it out, and it fit perfectly.

Since I'm making the shoes myself, I have to go for some serious custom-made work. The shoes are made of wood, so they're definitely not as soft and comfortable as industrially manufactured shoes.

But I know there's something called ergonomics, which simply means that the human body will deform when subjected to the force of an object.

Different structures will produce different deformations, so the pressure acting on a certain part of the body will also be very different.

For example, compared to sitting on a hard bench, sitting on a sofa is much more comfortable for our buttocks.

This is not to say that one has greater or less pressure than the other. The weight of the human body remains constant, and the pressure acting on both types of furniture is the same.

However, because the material of a hard bench does not deform, most of the pressure on the buttocks when sitting on it is applied to the bones, and the greater the pressure on the bones, the more uncomfortable we feel.

On the contrary, a sofa designed according to ergonomics allows the pressure to be evenly distributed through the deformation of the sofa cushion, making the person feel much more comfortable.

My shoes are like a hard bench now. Without the right materials or structural changes, my feet, which already have little muscle, will feel even more uncomfortable than my butt.

Of course, I'm not going to be disappointed that I can find a cushioning material like sponge to modify the soles of my shoes, but there's another way to achieve the same effect.

Since I can't passively change the shape of the materials I have, I can proactively change their shape to what I want.

I spread a layer of mud evenly on my feet, and then carefully put my feet into the shoes. I couldn't put any pressure on them, so I used my hands to hold the shoes and gently pressed my feet inside like a handprint.

Then the same operation was performed on the other foot. At this point, if you pick up the wood and look inside, you can see that it is not a complete footprint; there are only a few muddy spots.

The dots that are printed out are the main skeletal structures on our feet that support our body. The same principle applies to the two protruding ischial bones at the tip of the buttock.

That's the essence of customization: everyone's foot shape is different, so their footprints will also be different.

Most people's feet are slightly curved in the middle, so the footprints usually show a dot on the front of the big toe, and then a line extending from the side to the heel.

However, I was a bit luckier than most people this time. My foot shape is not the slightly bent type, but rather a flat piece like a duck's foot.

This also means that custom shoes are bound to be simpler than those made by others.

I can see that there are large mud imprints inside, and except for some blank areas under the special bone below the thumb, the rest of the area is basically filled.

Next, I started digging radially from where my thumb was, towards the blank area at the edge.

Each time I dug down a layer of indentation, I would stretch my foot out again and gently press it. With my unremitting efforts, I finally managed to completely imprint the footprint during the third rest period.

The same process was used on a piece of wood; after a series of digging and trimming, the footprint of that foot could be completely imprinted inside.

After this process, the upper of my shoe perfectly conforms to the curve of my foot. The entire sole of my foot can evenly distribute my body weight onto the upper.

I tried them on and didn't feel any discomfort from the hard wood digging into my feet. On the contrary, these wooden shoes, which fit the shape of my feet snugly, were quite comfortable to wear.

I took off my shoes and then used a knife to round off the excess sharp edges at the front and back.

After chopping, I slowly scraped the uneven surface with the knife, gradually making the cuts and the surface smoother and more rounded.

After some scraping, the shoes became smooth and shiny white. At first glance, they looked somewhat similar to those oversized white sneakers.

However, these shoes are destined not to become white sneakers, because there are still some processes to be done later.