forum-goer's schooling isnt really anyones business, tho i think you should stick thru school also, its your choice, your life, enjoy it...

back on topic tho, if you were to be alive in feudal japan im sure you would see most people wearing the same sandals fromt he same shoemaker, or whatever, same with the dark ages and whatever, the reason that we today dont have the same shoes is because shoes are no longer made outta necessity but rather must have a functoin or look good, even tho the primary function stayed the same we added crap for no real reason, for instance, who the hell cares if your shoe lights up when u step, does it really matter, also the fact that there are thousandsof different shoe manufgs., anyways, point is, in history there was 1 shoemaker per geographic area and he didnt need to make 50000 diff. shoes or 50000 diff. styles, the sandals all serve their purposes and there probably is only 1 or 2 shoemakers in the village

as for the headband thing i would have to guess that its something like war in our days, even tho you hate a country it is against the "rules of engagement" to dress up like them or dress up as civilians and attack them, so america has tags and patches that let even the enemy know they're american, so maybe there was a Ninja version of the "geneva convention" in which they decided honorable practices of war, which may have included village headbands to distinguish, i mean they need SOMETHING when everyone can wear diff. uniforms all different colors from blue to orange to green