In recent years, there were all kinds of doubts of the reliability of each discipline of forensic science
in many countries. As a form of feature comparison, footwear impression comparison was doubted because
of the specificity of its characteristics being compared, while the possibility that experts find and utilize the
characteristics would be affected by its reflective ability and reproducibility. To reply those who doubted,
researchers all over the world conducted a large number of fundamental researches. In order to introduce the
progress of the fundamental research on acquired characteristics in home and abroad up to now to relative
practitioners, thereby make them be acknowledged the consideration and utilization of the value of each kind of
acquired characteristic, the current paper illustrated the fundamental researches of the acquired characteristics,
including fundamental researches on the reflective ability, specificity and reproducibility of the immediate
damage, Schallamach pattern and foreign object. Some of the researches abroad also provided important
orientations for the study of footwear impression in home. Besides, the researches mentioned above have brought
us enlightenments on research spaces, interdisciplinarity of researches and challenges of impression evidence
comparison, which lead us to possible research orientations on acquired characteristics.