A foot consists of 4 palms or 12 thumbs (inches). A fathom is distance of arms outstretched (6') and so it goes on. Many fractions and multiples can easily be achieved without resorting to scale or rule.
You can trace all the way back to Egyptian/Roman times though many had their standard size fiddled with over the years. The German foot was a bit longer, a French pound (livre) a little heavier etc.
Of course if you're mucking about in a globalised world with software, or engines, satellites and suchlike SI units are a much better bet.
Once we get to miles, I don't think that those have any advantage over kilometres (of course, we could have a hybrid system with kiloyards, to get the advantages of both).
And what about fahrenheit and pounds?
After 50 years of only metric in UK schools? We've mostly switched most of the time, and I'm amazed we're not there yet! You still often hear people referring to temperatures by Fahrenheit decade (50s, 80s etc) though I can't remember the last time I saw a forecast ever use F. Everyone still seems to think of their height or weight in imperial. Beer comes in pints. There's a few other strange holdouts.
Choose one and stick to it :-) Customary xkcd: https://xkcd.com/927/