When Shoe Heritage is on Display: A Digital Fashion Communication Approach

Abstract

This paper contributes to the field of digital culture and fashion communication by presenting a comprehensive overview of publicly available shoe museums and collections worldwide, which have an online presence. To the best knowledge of the authors, this listing is the first of its kind on institutions that exhibit shoes. It shows what types of contents and services shoe museums offer online and to what extent they digitally enable access to their collections. Through a content analysis, museums’ websites and their presence on social media are examined. A scattered map shows how much the shoe museums rely on a digitally enhanced access to their collection in comparison to service and institutional information that they provide on their websites.