When I studied at the Art Academy in Jerusalem, I was very fond of classical drawing lessons, because I understood that in the future for me to be able to draw any of my fantasy figure, I must first learn the basics. So, in whatever you touch upon, in any field, you must first learn the basics of the subject, in which you would like to achieve perfection. At the shoe craftsmanship such a basis, in my opinion, is the study of all the classic shoe models based on which you can make any shoe.
So to be a designer that is not only "creates" and by that I mean "makes a pretty drawing on a paper", but also can really make any of his ideas, it is important to know the construction of the classic shoe models. While I personally have never made any classic model of shoes (in a his "clean definition") in my own collections, I have all my models designed only because my knowledge on how to structure classic models of shoes. Those models as they are, in terms of design, don't interest me, but the knowledge of their design gives me the freedom to create. They, like the alphabet, for those who wish to be a writer.