I've been thinking about shoes, recently.
  I can't personally make moccasins, being as I am without buckskin, rawhide, &c.  So I've been researching plant alternatives.  I think that a simple coiled plant fibre sandal is the best one I've come across.  Once spring finally comes, I will try and make some.  Basically, you start making a coiled basket, but make it long and fairly thin, to fit the shape of your foot.  I would either use a lot of grass, cattail fibres that have been shredded, or braided willow bark as the coiled material, and willow bark as the thread to keep it coiled.  (If you don't know how to make coiled baskets, then look them up.  I find that they are the most useful forms of basket, as they are virtually waterproof is made very tight).  I also thought of sandals with birch bark soles (a few layers of birch bark glued together with resin).  I'll let you know how everything turns out, but does anyone else have any thoughts about primitive footwear?

Here in Spain still in use sandals made with esparto grass  and hemp cord, they sell it in lot of places and people carry them mostly in sumertime. also country people and farmers use this kind of footwear  when working in the fields.
they are cheap and very popular in the mediterranean zone and they are durable and comfort.
Alswo here in the south of Spain is part of the typical suit ppl wear in holy week (easter) religious parades.
here is a link with some models
http://www.armillum.com/calzados.html

yup braided, coiled and sewn together. i think there's a spanish old tv series  about lost   (or soon to get lost)  handcrafting/ work/ jobs  that show how those sandals are constructed.

Being a female I have used the spanish style, hemp soled shoes when they came around in fasion and they are great on a dry summer day but no good at all when wet and rot if not properly dried before storing.

Being Dutch, our national, primitive footwear has been wood for a long time. I know it has been used in different parts of Europe like France and Sweden too. So if textiles are to soft or not suited to the weather, look for your local version of wooden soles.

I have used stoneage style leather sandals one summer when working in a re-enactment park and on all but the rainiest days I was fine in them. Just keep them well cared for with conditioner. (Grease?)

Willeke.

I think that if you applied a coat of resin to the sandals, they would be fine.  Wax would work as well.  Something pretty much water-resistant.
  I was thinking about wooden shoes, but I think that it would require a lot of effort to cut down some trees wide enough, and then either carve them into clogs, or similar, or split them perfectly to get soles.  Not at all possible with stone tools, which is what I want to use, to be totally primitive.  Grass sandals just needs a reaping knife for cutting the grass or shredding the cat-tail leaves, and a sharp blade from trimming the willow bark.  Not too difficult.

Zorrro,
I recently bought a pair much like these, just the bits of wood sticking out at the soles missing. Mine I will use with a strap of leather in the opening to keep it on. The other kind used around here does not need the leather because the opening is smaller.

English,
You are thinking stone age tools, they would have used easy to get materials, not wood cut and split by hand, I think.
I wonder how you find time for your studies, if I see what you do, your hobbies would fill a week of 9 days.
Succes,

Willeke

here are my leather shoes.



not primitive but hey they work

What do you mean by "primitive"? Doesn't have to be ugly and sloppy.