Today is One Day Without Shoes, organized by TOMS:
We are asking people to go the day, part of the day or even just a few minutes, barefoot, to experience a life without shoes firsthand, and to help spread awareness of the impact a simple pair of shoes can bring to a child’s life.
Check out the website for more info…there may be events happening near you!
Behold the FiveFingers shoe, made by Vibram (Geekologie wonders why they aren’t called FiveToe).
Maybe a decent compromise for timid members of the Society for Barefoot Living!
The FiveFingers website touts the benefits of this weird looking shoe:
FiveFingers footwear acts like a second skin to offer a gecko-like grip over a variety of terrain. It protects bare feet from rocks, gravel, and sharp objects. And it promotes a natural walking motion, reducing impact on your knees, hips, and lower back.
I can’t help but think that with all that material between your toes, the wearer would feel like they were in a constant state of pedicure. And I don’t think I’d have the balls to wear these down the street. But I can’t deny that this is a pretty neat shoe.
I recently stumbled on the Society for Barefoot Living, which promotes and supports the shoe-free lifestyle. The philosophy behind barefoot living is summed up nicely in this quote from their main page:
“Going barefoot is the gentlest way of walking and can symbolise a way of living — being authentic, vulnerable, sensitive to our surroundings. It’s the feeling of enjoying warm sand beneath our toes, or carefully making our way over sharp rocks in the darkness. It’s a way of living that has the lightest impact, removing the barrier between us and nature.”
I am completely on board with the low-impact symbolism, and the warm sand sounds delightful, but I’m not sure that I want to cultivate mindfulness through stepping on sharp rocks. And I’m pretty sure that “removing the barrier between us and nature” is code for stepping in dog shit.
The site includes a number of articles including health arguments for going barefoot, and a debunking of various ‘myths’ about barefoot living including the old “no shirt, no shoes, no service” rule, driving barefoot, and occupational health and safety issues.
The FAQ section is where things get a little wacky. My personal favourite is “what about hot surfaces such as asphalt?” The answer given goes a bit beyond the level of effort I’m willing to put in to get around:
On particularly hot days, I will go from shade patch to shade patch, and hang out until the burning subsides before continuing. One trick I’ve learned is that if you walk briskly, then the time your foot is in the air is enough to dissipate a lot of the heat absorbed during the previous step. Also, if you concentrate on the foot that’s in the air, you will be focusing on where the heat is dissipating, not where it is accumulating. This gives you a psychological edge.
Tip: When you cross at intersections, the white stop-lines are cooler; you can walk on those.
I can’t imagine behaving like this in public. Well, I can, but it ends with someone calling psychiatric services to take me in for an assessment. Psychological edge alright. The edge of OCD.
While the full-fledged barefoot lifestyle is definitely not for me, I will admit that there’s something really liberating about going barefoot. I hate the feeling of shoes and socks on my feet, especially when not actively walking around, and I always go barefoot at home. Sometimes if I’m feeling particularly anarchistic I’ll even run down the hallway of my apartment building in my bare feet to drop the garbage in the chute.
