Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! Fighting off flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch of the West has had Dorothy wearing down her infamous Ruby Red slippers. These timeless shoes, worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, have been one of the most well-known movie-prop pieces that have ever existed, and they look to be in pretty bad shape. The Smithsonian Institute, the current keepers of the shoes, would like to see them repaired and are looking to spend the hefty price of 300,000 dollars! So where is this money going to come from? A Kickstarter campaign will hopefully do the trick for bringing in the funds that these shoes need. The campaign is an online fundraiser where donations go towards restoring or preserving famous public items of any culture. In the case of the Ruby Reds, the money will help the museum better understand the make-up of the shoe, from its materials to its color.

Funny enough, these famous shoes were commercially made, and they were bought by MGM studios, the producers of The Wizard of Oz. The sequins on the shoe seen today were not originally on the pair of shoes and were added after the studio purchased the pair to spice up their look. Back in the Emerald City, these shoes were sparkling like the sun. But with time, the sequins have become incredibly fragile and faded, and the red paint of the shoe has begun to crack and fall off. So what, can’t we just replace the sequins and re-paint the shoes? Well, as easy as the exterior would be to replace, the materials that make up the shoe vary and need some work themselves.

The shoes contain 12 different materials, and each has to be studied in depth to fully understand how the materials behave with the world around them. Richard Barden of the Smithsonian says, “we take each material individually and do research to work out what the best environment is.” The information that is collected from this research will tell the crew about the sort of conditions the shoes must be kept in to ensure long-standing quality. Even the idea of putting the shoes in a temperature-controlled case has been proposed. Though it may seem like a bit much for a pair of shoes, these slippers are too important to American culture to deserve anything less than top-notch care.

The National Museum of American History will be opening up a new exhibit in the near future, titled On With the Show. This exhibit will feature pieces of movie and theater culture that are well known throughout the world, including R2-D2 from Star Wars, the Muppets, and of course, the Ruby Red slippers. This exhibit will take its audience back in time, reviewing some of the most influential entertainment props, and Dorothy’s slippers must be looking better than ever to give its viewers a walk down memory lane.

Although 300,000 dollars may seem to be a bit too much to be spending on shoes, these iconic slippers have a reason to be spoiled. Hopefully, with this work, the shoes will be on display for the world for hundreds of years to come.