Here's how this Romanian cobbler's long-nosed shoes will help people maintain social distance

Social distancing is the need of the hour. The term 'social distancing' has been used frequently in the past few days. From grocery shops to local markets, everywhere we find people following guidelines and maintaining at least two metres of distance.

Post-two-month lockdown to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus eased in Romania in mid-May, Grigore Lup, a Romanian shoemaker from the Transylvanian city of Cluj, noticed people were not respecting the rules of social distancing.

So Lup came up with the idea of long-nosed leather shoes to help keep people apart. They come in a European size 75.

"You can see it on the street, people are not respecting social distancing rules," said Lup, who has been making leather shoes for 39 years. "I went to the market to buy seedlings for my garden. There weren't many people there but they kept getting closer and closer.

"If two people wearing these shoes were facing each other, there would be almost one-and-a-half metres between them." While he also sells ready-made shoes, Lup's shop, which he opened in 2001, relies heavily on custom orders from theatres and opera houses across the country, as well as traditional folk dance ensembles.

Lup, who said he adapted the long footwear from a model he made for actors, said he had so far received five orders for social distancing shoes. It takes him two days to make a pair, which requires almost one square metre of leather. They cost 500 lei ($115) a pair.

Do you think this shoe will help people maintain the appropriate distance?

(Inputs from Reuters)