As sophisticated as shoes were by the end of the Roman Empire, by the end of the early Middle Ages in Britain and northern Europe shoes were fairly simple and uncomplicated affairs. Turned work was purportedly introduced to the north by the Saxons in the 5th Century, and by the 7th century, this appears to have replaced the center seam style of shoe that had prevailed in the areas of Roman influence. Whether the Saxons learned of this from the Byzantines, who, as may be seen by the Coptic shoes above, may have retained some tradition of turnshoes from the Roman period, maintained their own tradition of them, or re-developed them as a logical outgrowth of their own developments in footwear, we don't know for certain. There appears to me to be an evolution in footwear in northern Europe leading to turned work, and ultimately turned shoes. If turned work was an import from the Byzantines, then it is curious that the welt, or "rand", so common in Coptic shoes don't appear in the archaeology for a number of centuries after the earliest known Germanic turned shoes found at sites like Hedeby.
On the continent, the Roman style of sewing uppers with thread, while stitching on the soles with thonging remained, although in Britain at least (specifically in York), the thread in the uppers was also replaced by rawhide thonging. There is little archaeological evidence though for turned shoes before the 7th Century, and it can be assumed that before this, the shoes in common use would be either of the center seamed carbatine type, or the puckered sided Buinerveen types. Later, when the turned shoes started to appear, they were of a slip-on type or secured by a toggle-and-thong or tied-thong fastening, as depicted on contemporary or near contemporary art.
From the linguistic data, the most common term for shoe under the Saxons was "scoh", which would most likely have meant the ankle-boot styles. The "staeppescoh", the term used by the 8th C for slipper, is synonymous with the word "swiftlere", although that was only documented later in this period. Both of these terms are translated into the Latin "subtalaris" ("below the ankle") signifing a foot covering which was certainly lower than the ankle. "Socc", a term from the Roman "succus", which was a simple slipper consisting of an light upper and sole, later appears to have been synonomous with "slebescoh"/"slypesco" or slipshoe, or a "bag-like" foot covering that was easily slipped on. In some texts, however, "socc" appears to have been synonmous to "callicula" and "gallicula", both terms apparently derived from "caligae", while in others they may have referred to boots. "Tibracis" was apparently a form of leather boot. "Calc" and "crinc" refer to types of a sandal.
Buckles have been found in some Merovingian era graves that appear to either be from shoe, or on the gaitering worn on the leggings. Gradually this fashion spread into Britain. In the 7th C, there is evidence of metal (e.g. bronze) aglets on worsted cords used as shoe-laces.
By the later portion of the Early Middle Ages (or Dark Ages) turned work is the most common form of shoe found from the both the British and the Norse regions. Frequently, these shoes were ankle high, usually fastened by means of a triangular flap which covered the ankle, and was attached by a latchet, or with thongs which passed through slits in the leather and wrapped around the ankle. All this footwear is flat-soled and very plain. The shoes do not have exaggerated toes or ornamentation in the form of tooled leather; fancy stitching is extremely rare. Among the Norse shoes, the most notable features are the the large triangular heels and straight soles. These are representative of Norse shoes of the period until c1150, when the "waisted" sole and round heel found elsewhere became the norm. Many of these shoes, both on the Continent and in Britain, had a top band to help strengthen the top edge of the shoe.
There seem to be a number of different ways to sew these turned shoes together, but the most common stitches were a split/stabbed combination ("flesh/edge stitch") and the stabbed stitch ("flesh/grain stitch"). The most common thread for these shoes varied. Before the 10th century in Britain, for example, the most common thread for uppers was thonging. During the 11th century there was some experimentation with woolen thread and linen, but eventually linen won out and eventually even replaced the thonging used to stitch soles to the uppers.
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