Barefoot or Not?

Dear Foot Blogger Chick,

You have on several occasions talked about why you shouldn’t walk around in your bare feet. I hope that you know that there are other opinions on this. There are people who are proponents of barefoot running and there is a Society for Barefoot Living.

It’s a Big World

Dear Itsabig,

You are correct. There are other thoughts about being barefoot than the ones that we have talked about in this blog. Easily there are exceptions to the rule and it is a free country. There are some reasons why there are times and places to wear shoes. Let’s take a look –

According to those who are part of the Society for BarefootLiving, there is no reason for this sign except to keep the “hippies” out of anestablishment. The society claims that they annually check with Public Health Departments and there are no rules about shoes for customers. There is even a post from a different blog with a story about how the rule was started due to surfer dudes and dudettes.

So, if there is no Health Department rule as to why we should wear shoes in restaurants and stores, why should we? Have you ever been in a restaurant when a dish is broken? How about a glass? While it does not happen all the time, it happens frequently enough that you might want to wear shoes just to prevent your foot from being cut from piece of glass that was missed during a cleanup. I realize that this might be more of my reaction than yours but “Eww” those floors might be slimy. And my other reason would be that in some restaurants the tables are close together and I don’t want someone stepping (or putting their chair on) my bare foot. Okay, I don’t want them to do it on my shoe either but it sounds like it would hurt more on a bare foot.

In general, the reason to wear shoes in stores and restaurants is to protect your feet.

This is a quote credited to Chief Seattle of the Suquamish and Duwamish Native American Tribes. (Yes, Seattle is named for him.) The basic idea is that while you can look at beautiful scenery; make sure that you don’t leave anything behind – like trash. You should leave the beauty for others to enjoy. This does not literally mean go in your bare feet to travel the world; it just means that you should not leave part of yourself behind.  Yes, when walking the beach you will want to leave only footprints, unless the beach is really hot and then you might want shoes (even flip flops!) as protection from the hot sand.

This little witticism from the early 1900’s is really not worth talking about now, is it? (Don’t try it.)

There is a movement that waxes and wanes in popularity called barefoot running. There is a very interesting article in Runner’s Worldon the subject that give a little of the history and talks about the physical aspects of barefoot running vs. running in shoes.

Okay, I have read an article on this before.  The gentleman in that article who was advocating barefoot running claims that he does not get cuts. I find that hard to believe. It just seems that you would get injured by road debris.

I also think that you would have to really work up to running in your bare feet. If you were a runner and decided to stop wearing your shoes one day and do a regular workout, I think that you could really damage your feet. You could easily hurt your plantar fascia or Achilles tendon with the change.  If you wanted to try this, I strongly suggest that you work up to it slowly.

I will give you my 5 reasons for not going barefoot.

1.      Stubbed toes 

2.      Splinters 

3.       Toe nail fungus

4.       Protection from things being dropped on your feet

5.       Support for foot issues like Achilles tendonitis and Plantar Fasciitis

I hope you are enjoying your summer. Get out and enjoy the weather but do protect those wonderful feet of yours with shoes.

Your Pal,

The Foot Blogger Chick

Don’t miss a post!  Sign up to receive notices of new posts to your email box!  Just use the sign up box at the top of the page.

Thanks so much for reading!