Giant Shoe Museum (sometimes the World Famous Giant Shoe Museum) is a museum in Seattle's Pike Place Market, in the U.S. state of Washington.

Description

The museum has "odd and outsize shoes displayed behind sideshow-style curtains", according to Harriet Baskas of CNBC. The one-wall exhibit allows guests to view shoes through a stereoscope. It has been described as "the world's largest collection of giant shoes", as well as "likely one of the world's few coin-operated museums".

History

The museum was designed and built by Sven Sundbaum in 1997. Owned and operated by adjacent Old Seattle Paperworks, the exhibit is curated by Dan Eskenazi.

Reception

Cody Permenter included the museum in Thrillist's 2015 list of "The 11 Strangest Museums in (and Around) Seattle". Christina Ausley of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer included the Giant Shoe Museum in a 2020 overview of the city's 14 "strangest" landmarks, writing: "Drop a humble 50 cents into a small coin box for the world's largest collection of giant shoes. Nestled a few floors below downtown Seattle's Pike Place Market, approach the flamboyant circus entryway and gaze through the binoculars for a myriad of Herculean hi-tops and a size 37 work by Robert Wadlow."

See also

• List of museums in Seattle