Wednesday, July 2, 2008

You Were Born Without Shoes, But Not That Last Guy.

I recently read an article from the New York Magazine called "You Walk Wrong" and besides amusing me, having really cool illustrations, it gives you a lot to think about in terms of what we really need from a shoe. There are in fact no laws that restrict being barefoot in public, in restaurants, or driving. Apparently growing numbers of people are simply walking barefoot everywhere, Or, according to barefooters.org, you can simply wrap a leather or nylon strap around your feet, and most people will assume you have sandals on. But there are a few shod options available like the Vivo Barefoot, the glove-like Vibram FiveFinger, and simple moccasins.


If you're going to read any of the article, page 5 is the most amusing, the writer tests out the 'barefoot' style shoes and "fox walking". On fox walking, he decides "as for walking in the city, fox-walking has no real practical application, in part because it’s incredibly frustrating to master and in part because you look like a lunatic." The Vivo barefoot shoes allow you to feel everything through the super thin sole though, "it’s not often that you walk around New York, see something on the ground, and think, I wish I could feel that with my foot."

The comments are full of positive stories and well-thought critiques, though one unhappy reader wrote:

"All you barefoot peeple are idiots. Yes, you went to collage, but you learned to be liberel and stupid. This is why my kids won't be going to collage!
Bear feet are wrong. You never see a Godly man in bear feet. I bet you hate America too!"

I suppose that I could chalk up his misspellings to blind rage, but I'm just going to go ahead and assume he's very ignorant and hates adhesive-based crafts and animal part transplants. But maybe he and his children, unlike the rest of us were born with shoes.

I'm not a huge fan of shoes myself, and I have no problem walking barefoot to get the mail, or just outside in general, but I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to test walking into a restaurant or store barefoot. Especially a shoe store. I doubt they'd let me try any on.

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