Do bare feet pick up more dirt than shoes?

I just had a thought yesterday. It seems to me that my bare feet tend to pick up more dirt than my shoes do. I'm thinking that the bare skin tends to just be inherently more "sticky" than rubber-soled shoes. Plus there's the fact that our feet are washed at least 1-2 times a day for most of us, and we all know that dirt tends to stick to a clean surface much more so than to a somewhat already dirty surface.

I noticed this after walking through Lowe's hardware store last night, and the soles of my feet got SUPER black after just a few minutes. If I were to wipe my sole across something like a clean sheet of paper, and then do the same with my shoes after walking through the store, I guarantee my bare foot would leave more of a black smear on the paper than the shoe would.

So I was thinking about all this and ended up thinking: could we as barefooters actually track MORE dirt into our house rather than if we had worn shoes or flops or something else between our feet and the ground?

Just some thoughts I had. I'm certainly not thinking of going back to shod, at least not until cold weather sets in.

 

Idk.. If I step in shit while in shoes.. I probably wouldn't know..

If I stepped in shit barefoot..... I would know..

 

it is impossible to pick more dirt so hard to remove than vibram boot soles.

 

While skin is naturally moist, dirt will stick to it by help of natural oils and sweat - but I don't think that they get dirtier than shoe soles. First of all, once a layer of dirt is on bare soles, that might linger. It doesn't get thicker, or we would end up with plateau soles beneath our bare feet. Secondly, us barefooters watch where we walk, while shoddists just walk straight on, trusting in the seemingly protective cover on their soles, picking up whatever their owners walk through. Thirdly, most shoe soles are dark in color, thus making dirt less apparent than on much lighter-colored bare skin.

So, this dirt picked up on subway floors is just the same any shoddist would pick up - in quality as well as quantity. It just shows more clearly, since my bare feet aren't dark grey or black:



As swiftly as my soles get dirty on urban surfaces, a few steps in grass will get them clean just as swiftly again.

Wiggling bare toes,

~*Ganesha*~

 

I think bare feet definitely pick up more dirt than shoes - dirt sticks to skin much easier than plastic shoe soles. Walking through city streets of ibiza last year my soles picked up so much dirt, ive never seen them blacker! And any other barefoot city walk always has had a similar effect. Ive never seen the bottoms of my shoes pick up dirt to the same degree. But they are far easier to clean, no matter how filthy your feet get a quick wash and good as new. Shoes on the other hand arent so easily cleaned so once they get dirty they stay dirty which isnt nice. If you shower every day then you can bet that no matter how dirty your feet get during the day, the dirts probably no longer than a few hours old. Dirt on shoes however could have been there for months!

 

but there is no reason to clean the soles of your shoes unless you tread in poo

 

There is the issue of lingering perma dirt on feet. You just probably don't see it on shoes.

 

you tread in mud - after awhile, quite fast if it's hot, no more than a shade of grey dust remains on your feet. unless boot soles, foot sole is greatly flexible so thick stuff won't cling for long. if you find a stream or a pond you can have a foot bath. backpacking bf with a shod friend i took all the chances to soak my feet, including lakes and mountain streams. try and do that with shoes. another time hiking in winter with some buddy, i dragged him in the deep mud of our woods for hours so in the end his hiking shoes were muddy inside ad out, but it was enough for me a short walk in deep wet grass to remove what remained of all the mud, i got white clean feet. also, feet get washed each now and then, shoe soles usually don't. it is all about if soil dirt grosses you out or not. i see more point in being grossed out by city filth than rural dirt , at least because of all the extra chemicals touching your skin. good that the outer layer of our soles is flaking away non stop, and this is another reason to assume that dirt lasts longer on shoes along with the simple fact that shoes are made of folded and sewn leather so dirt can get trapped in the foldings. but the killer bullet is that at least when barefoot you only have to deal with external dirt, whereas shoes get filthy and stinky and bacteria-ridden inside too and this grosses ME out. im barefoot for the same reason that makes a linux user of me: i want to walk, not to clean shoes and have to deal all the time with rotten socks and foot powder and weird insoles etc. also i want to use applications, not to spend weekends reinstalling it all or messing with system registry or wasting time and money with antiviruses antimalware, etc. guess why the Gnome desktop logo is one bare foot print :2thumbsup:



oh, btw im more of a KDE/QT guy, actually.

 

Shoe soles don't sweat, so in dry conditions, dust will mostly slide off of them.

Soles do sweat and have all those little creases that make for better traction when moist (why wet fingers turn paper pages better than dry).

Walk on dust barefoot and it will stick to your soles. As an artist model, my feet turned charcoal black walking on studio floors.

 

it's great having you on this forum Shale :sunny:

 

A lot depends on the kind of soles the shoe that you're comparing your foot with has. Dust may stick to bare feet more than to smooth dress shoe soles, but mud and other 'sticky' dirt (gum, poo, tar) definitely gets stuck in the ridges of hiking shoes and thicker-soled sneakers far more! And those kind of shoes you can't even wipe truly clean on the thin door mats many businesses provide. So it just depends on the situation.

 

Really depends on the surfaces you have been walking on. Having only one foot, I find it gets blacker if I am crutching on city streets which probably would also be true if I was wearing a flip-flop.

 

well actually im collecting a lot of extra dirt barefoot... i'd never purposely cross all the mud puddles i find on country trails, should I have to clean, dry and grease boots, at the end of the day ... :2thumbsup: .

 

I think my feet are very much usually cleaner than most people's shoes. When the do get dirty they're very easy to clean as well.

 

I think it depends whether you go out of your way to get dirty feet (I sometimes do). What does amaze me, as I think has been said before, is how a quick walk on damp grass will make them spotless again

 

Same Results From Concrete, Gravel, Or A Bitumen Road...



Cheers Glen.

 

But damp grass feels fluffier on my bare feet... :daisy:

Wiggling bare toes,

~*Ganesha*~

 

Nah man, my feet get dirty as fuck whenever I enter into shops, cos their floors are some of the dirtiest places, especially supermarkets.. but just head to the nearest park, walk through the grass and they're as clean as they are when I first leave the house.

 

I just recently got into wearing Vibrams foot shoes for running and love them! The reason I don't go barefoot is because: 1. My feet just aren't adapted for that...To damn soft...

2. I do worry about all the chemicals and everything else that is left behind on surfaces by cleaning/other peoples shoes...etc...

Especially, in a place like Lowes...I used to work at Home Depot and I know the stuff that gets tracked in...

I am by far in no way a germaphobe but when it comes down to my feet...I'll stick with shoes...

 

I KNOW you are probably right, WM. But I love being barefoot so much I just forget about all that stuff!!