Barefeet in the city....why?

I love being barefeet myself, to feel the soil, the grass, the sand on a beach. It makes me feel connected to the earth and whenever I am in my garden or somewhere else in nature I take off my shoes. I walk barefeet around my house as well, but what I never really understood is why people like to walk barefeet in the city.
Our skin is highly absorbent and cities are dirty and polluted. Why do people like to put their bare feet into that?
I once asked a guy who was running around barefeet in Delhi (where it is in some areas extremely dirty and people spit and whatnot everywhere) the same question and he said that his feet feel confined in shoes. Fair enough I thought, but what about a pair of thongs?
Gays and gals, what is so great about walking barefoot on city roads and pavements?

 

Even in the city, on asphalt and tiles, there is still a large variety of surfaces. Some tiles are smooth, others are rough, sometimes it's warm and sometimes it's cool. Besides, barefooting isn't only about soft, gentle surfaces. Wearing soles under my feet is like wearing sunglasses; insulating me from anything that might be harmful but also taking most of the color out of the surroundings. Being barefoot is always more comfortable, not always the 'soft-gentle' kind of comfort, but the 'interesting' kind of comfort. I actually like rough surfaces, love to see how easily my soles stand up to all the stuff the world throws at me, whether it's natural (rocks) or man-made (asphalt, glass)... Prolly not very feminine of me but I don't care about that...

Also, since I walk barefoot 100% of the time, I put my foot down a bit differently, ball-first rather than heel-first like you have to do when wearing shoes. Now there are quite a lot of part-time barefooters here and I'm sure some people here switch depending on what they're wearing, but I've never been good at that. The very few times, during my first winters of barefooting, when I still wore footwear for the coldest days, I got sore legs after walking even the shortest distance (less than one KM) in shoes.

I also don't believe in any serious danger in absorbing pollution through my feet, not compared to what I take in while breathing the air. Nor do I worry about people's spit or dog shit or even people's, I trust the thick skin. If I pick up anything it's more likely to happen through my hands. Money, door knobs and the arm rests on public transport for example are some things that are covered in germs because so many people handle them, and we use our hands to eat, touch our face, etc... anything on there is *much* more likely to end up in our system than anything on the ground... and even knowing this I'm still eating snacks -with my hands- while on the road, and I definitely am not going to wear gloves when I go to town.

 

i like to go barefoot whenever possible,but im not to interested in doing it in cities coz the tar or concrete or whatever still insulates us from mother earths energies.i suppose it is marginally better than wearing rubber souls,but city streets can be tens of meters thick,so i just dont bother.sand ,stone ,grass and the likes is the only medium worth barefooting for.youd be mad not to go barefoot in nature at least once in a while,to replenish much needed energies un obtainable in cities and synthetic shoes.try it ,youll like it!

 

Barefootoing in the city is great. I agree with Myranya about the "different" type of comfort. When you step on something new, you realize right away. In my old city they had this soft, black rubber around the train tracks (where they crossed the road) and after walking on hard concrete all day, steping the the rubber was just heaven!

 

Ah yes, the trams! I remember those from walking around Amsterdam. Which in itself is an example of how you can open yourself to a whole new dimension of sensory information.

If you're worried about getting a bit dirty, well let me introduce you to the concept of the shower. I tell you it's much easier to get a bit of dirt of your feet (however messy or disgusting it might seem) than getting it off a pair of shoes. Skin is actually waterproof. If it weren't then we wouldn't last very long. Things don't just seep into it just like that, and certainly not in the time between one shower and the next. And of course the more time you spend barefoot the thicker your skin will become. The fact is that unless you're in the habit of eating with your feet then it really doesn't matter how dirty they get. They're no more exposed to anything than your hands or your face.

Oh and to answer your question about thongs, well personally my biggest reason for going barefoot is that my feet get very hot very quickly. If the soles are covered, where it's by thick trainers or flimsy little sandles, then they will get hot. They won't just get hot but they'll get sweaty, and then they'll get smelly. And if i try to play the endurance game and just put up with it it will get to the point where i can no longer bear it, but if I take off my shoes at that point then I'll be inflicting the smell on everyone else. The other thing I don't like about flip-flops or thongs is that not only are they very flimsy and impractical to walk, never mind run, in, they straps tend to rub against me and will make me sore, or at the very least annoy the fuck out of me. They don't really serve any purpose except to make me fit in with everyone else and to be honest I don't think that single bonus is worth losing both comfort and practicality.

 

the only time i ever wear shoes is if i'm going to a store where i need them or i'm walking somewhere where there's broken glass and stuff. i love feeling nature on my feet and i love not wearing shoes, so much that i'll even keep them off when i'm walking in the city. i don't even think about it, it's just not a big deal to me. i went to bonnaroo last year and it rained a lot. so much that there was no point in wearing shoes bc you would just let them lost in the mud. now you have to think about what this mud accumulated throughout the weekend. first of all, it was on a farm so there's probably cow shit everywhere, i'm sure dudes just pissed anywhere cuz they could, people puked...the mud, and whatever else it was, smelled horrible. but anyway, getting to my point finally...if i can walk through that i think i can walk on and through anything and not think about it being dirty.

 

I go barefoot in the city and everywhere else, stores, movies, carnivals, etc.. i just want to be barefoot. doesnt matter where.

 

I go barefoot by habit mostly and because I just don't like wearing shoes most of the time. It's funny because I rarely consider how dirty my feet will get from walking on public streets/parking lots/stores....but I do think of how dirty my hands get from touching doors and anything else in public places. It's my hands that I will obsess over,never my feet.

 

Yeah, that's funny 'cause I'm exactly the same way. I go barefoot everywhere and my feet get all black and dirty but yet when it comes to my hands I do crazy things like insulate my hands with rags whenever I touch the gas pump or open the bathroom door, and I'm always washing them anytime I touch anything that might have loose particles or grease.

 

I couldn't have said that better myself Right on, Myranya!!

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one then. I keep those cleaning wipe things,the little towels with hand sanitizer on them,in my purse at all times. Actually,I make my own now,I put alcohol on paper towels and keep those in ziplock bags,inside my purse. I clean my hands constantly...yet,my feet can be black from grime and I couldn't care less.

 

Wow cool, you're the first other person I've met who is like this, although I haven't met too many barefooters in general. One thing kind of cool about going barefoot is that your feet, although they may look all black and dirty, actually have less germs on them than if they were in shoes and smell much better when they are free to stay dry out in the air. Usually before I step in the house, however, I rinse my feet outside with the hose, rub them on wet concrete, then dry them by walking around on dry concrete and thats gets them clean enough. Hey that's cool about how you make your own hand sanitizers- that's a great idea in fact. I haven't gotten into the habit of using alcohol wipes to wash my fingers, but I'm always wiping door handles, computer keyboards, piano keys, etc. with them. And I avoid ever touching the toilet seat with my hands- I always use a piece of toilet paper to touch it with. I also have a fetish of keeping my house free from odors- I'm always airing it out; and I vacuum the carpets and change the sofa cover after every time I have company over.

Oh and one last thing though, my shower floor is pretty filthy from my constantly dirty bare feet - but heck why bother ever cleaning it?

 

I live in the city... if i dont barefoot in it then its rare i get the chance to barefoot anywhere... Also i think it makes you more sensitive to other surfaces... if you just barefoot in the country and on grass... you dont get much out of it... theres so sooo many more feelings in the city. Also your feet get hotter in the city than in the country so its a pluss.



However theres NOTHING like climbing a tree barefoot

 

How hot does it get in the uk?

 

I love the heat from the sidewalk, streets and such and not to mention how black my feet get.

 

I always never Where shoes.. only in the winter months and when the school bitches me out for it.. but then acouple laters i'm bare foot again... aha funny me.. I love the different Feelings of eveything From Grass to Sand to Sidewalks to Gravel and to even Store floors..Its amazing.. Gee i'm bare foot now and kinda resting my feet on my computer its warm.. i love it

 

I agree about being barefoot verses wearing shoes. Shoes don't allow the feet to breath. I have a big garden to take care of and I never wear shoes..my feet don't hurt at all,even after hours of stepping on rocks and dirt. But if I wear shoes,for even 15 minutes,my feet ache so bad. Shoes are just a bother in general...I don't mind wearing shoes,but I would much rather not.
I like cleaning...I feel like I've accomplished something once I am finished. I'm not too obsessed over it,but I clean off toilet seats,computer keyboards,door knobs,control pads on appliances,etc alot...because people don't wash their hands enough. I wash my hands or use the alcohol on them all the time and I rarely if ever get sick.
The worst for me...basements,attics,or anywhere that has cobwebs and bugs. I love going into those places,but afterwards I am washing my hands and shaking out my hair like there's no tomorrow. I feel like there are bits of stuff all over my body...ugh,I hate that.

Okay,I'm gonna stop now before I make myself sound any more crazy

 

Hey, I think it's cool to be a little crazy. Normal is boring. Anyway, I hear ya about how cleaning gives you immediate gratification- you can see the results of your efforts and it's totally satisfying. Yeah, I can't stand places where I get little bits of cobwebs, dust, allergens, and other stuff on me and in my hair. Same with being around cigarette smokers. When I get exposed to such environments I have to go home and decontaminate. I take off my clothes in the front hallway and put them in plastic bags so that the contaminants don't get all over the house. Then I proceed right to the shower. Sometimes, however, I don't have time for a shower so I'll attempt to get the debris out of my hair with the blow dryer. Hmm, I guess I'm getting off the topic of going barefoot. Yay for bare feet!

 

That is a good point. It never gets ridiculously hot. Summer from July to mid-september is usually fairly warm but it's extremely rare that'd ever be hot enough to burn your feet, but the ground does get warm enough that even if you're on smooth pavement in the warm weather, half an hour's walk will give you nasty blisters if you haven't let your feet acclimatise to it gradually building up to it.

 

But you dont mind how grimey and filthy your feet gets? Do you wash your feet at all?

Mo