They don’t look much like shoes. Shoes for walking are flat, brake shoes are curved. So why do most folks still call them “shoes”?
Because they don’t look like sandals… 
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Because they replaced the way we used to brake: putting our shoes on the ground, à la Fred Flintstone.
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The same reason your CV joints have “Boots”.
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I call mine pads.
Edit: just for the hard of hearing, I didn’t mean to imply that folks in the Midwest call drum brake liners, pads. Disc brake pads. Drum brake shoes to be clear, but been about 30 years having any brake shoes.
Or, why do Brits call station wagons shooting-brakes?
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The shoes are referring to the metal backing. The pads are glued (or in the past riveted) to the shoes. The term shoe has many meanings beyond footwear…back in the day, they had wooden blocks attached to the shoe and those blocks rubbed on a wagon wheel.
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Curious about that one myself.
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Must be a regional thing. Disc brake pads are called Pads, Drum brakes are called shoes. No place I ever lived called drum brakes pads.
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Yes, but you don’t have a 50 year-old vehicle as your daily driver, nor do all other members of the forum… except for one person.
Mike thought it was a regional thing to call shoes pads is all.
Not that it matters but I ordered new brake shoes from jc Whitney for my 60 Morris. When I got them, they were just the liners that had to be riveted to the shoes. Even in 1966 nobody riveted liners to shoes. I just included them with the car when I sold it. They didn’t have liquid nails back then or that might have been an option. (That was a joke for the hard of hearing, not to be taken seriously)
I guess I am hard of hearing also . I read your post that you were calling pads shoes .
What can I say except I’ll try to be more clear in the future.
Eh, I’m having my wingtips repadded🤪
Wingtips? Still got them? And who in the world is still in business to repaid them? Everyone retired years ago around here.
Yes they did. The most reputable brake shop where I lived in 66 had rolls of liners, in different widths. The mechanic would run a liner into a shearing press and cut to length, then take the cut pad to a punch press and punch in the holes, then to the rivet press and rivet the liner to the old shoes.
At that time, riveted shoes were the premium shoes, bonded shoes were the cheap shoes. A little while later, riveted and bonded shoes became the premium shoes as the old guys still did not trust bonded only shoes.
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Why were the 1st Saturn’s called, a Coupe = SC1-2, the Wagon = SW 1-2 and then the Sedan = SL 1-2??
Of course 1=SOHC & 2=DOHC and the S=Saturn
SC&SW makes total sense, but SL for Sedan? L=Long maybe?? lol
My theory: One of the first car’s was German Karl Benz’s Motorwagon, invented in 1866 1886. Benz intended to manufacture & sell his car to the public. He became depressed b/c nobody would buy it, thinking the car a neat idea presumably, but otherwise impractical. Road conditions and few fuel sources, etc. His wife noticed his sadness, and decided to take matters into her own hands. She wanted to show everybody the car is indeed practical. So she fueled-up and set off by herself on a 40 mile journey to visit her mother. She had to stop along the way several times at drugstores, the only available source for fuel. But she made it to and back.
So what does this have to do with the term " brake shoes"? Before embarking on this trip she decided based on test drives she needed to somehow improve the brakes. Karl – being a man — was interested in going forward, not stopping, so he compromised on the brake design. Before the trip the wife hired someone to install leather pads on the brakes, which was sort of like a leather sole found on shoes, hence “brake shoes”. The leather sole reportedly made the brakes work considerably better, but the brakes still remained the most troublesome part of her trip, especially when going downhill.
On my 62 Falcon station wagon a rear wheel cylinder sprung a leak and saturated the shoes with brake fluid. One of the glued together shoes came apart and jammed the wheel. Hitched a ride to the nearest auto parts store and bought riveted shoes.
A bit later, patented in 1886.
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