left-footed Japanese boots?

[HaraKiriBlade]

This is taken from The Shipping News by Annie Proulx.

...and you are either a big advertiser come to take out a four-page spread to proclaim the values of your warehouse of left-footed Japanese boots, or you are the brethlessly awaited Mr. Quoyle.

I never knew there existed "footedness" in footwears like handedness in tools. I know certain tools, such as scissors, have left-handed design variation. But footwears? I don't see how ANY footwears have right / left-footedness in them, nor do I see the point. Can anyone enlighten me here?

HKB, bewildered.

[BobK]

Footwear [no S]. In the West, most shoes and boots are shaped to fit L/R feet, and most socks/stockings aren't. To see this for yourself, go to a shoe-shop, find a pair of shoes that fit, and then try to switch feet - if you succeed at all, you'll find the result most uncomfortable.

b

[Casiopea]

To me, given the word 'warehouse', the phrase 'left-footed Japanese boots' means a storehouse filled with shoe products that can't be sold. They are only for the left foot. (There are no pairs for the right foot). Sellers, in an attempt to get rid of that kind of inventory, will most likely try to sell it as a foreign fashion statement. In this case, a Japanese fashion statement. The local people wouldn't know the difference, would they?