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I love the feeling of moving through life without shoes. It is like you have added a whole new part of your body to caress your surroundings with.
Shopping barefoot is such a joyous experience. Green bags in hand I hop into the car. The feeling of the mat on the floor is coarse and always a bit dirty. My toes can curl slightly on the accelerator as I steer the car onward.
I park and get out of the car. The ground in the car park is hot and black. I walk quickly in the Aussie summer and my feet, although they feel the intense heat of the black tar, are OK with it.
Inside the supermarket the tiles are smooth and cool. Such difference in feel to the car park. My feet sigh a happy sigh.
I move through the isles feeling my stride. I move with stealth feeling every footstep. The touch and the way my foot rolls, the stretch of my arch the strength of my ankles. On my toes to grab a product and slip it into the basket.
Past the fridge isle. The floor is deliciously cold in summer but painful in winter. It is a sensation I never knew existed when I wore shoes.
I am finished and standing in line for the checkout. I practice balancing on one foot and then the other. Close my eyes and incorporate my stabilizer muscles. Next I lean forward and stretch my achilles and calves. I am subtle in my movements. I wonder if anyone notices. I bet everyone else in line is lost in their own world.
I pay, pack my stuff in my green bags, move back to the hot car park and then drive home.
It seems sad that most people choose to press the mute button on their feet. There is so much in this world to feel when you just get around with nude feet.
I feel you but.. there wasn’t a no shoes no service sign?
What if there was?
Most employees won’t personally care, and they have no legal backing.
In any case there were no shoes, yet, service. :P
Nice photo!
Don’t forget. When you enter someone’s business your not in public anymore. A company can ask you to leave if they have a posted rule for anything. Your only recourse is to shop somewhere else, but I doubt anyone will care as long as you don’t look homeless or crazy.
Dude this is awesome! ive been going barefoot for a long time(except at school, i went for a month give or take and they got reaaaallly mad at me for that then i decided to wear shoes(flipflops) at school but not that im out of school ive been going barefoot everywhere, and i agree when you go barefoot, this is gonna sound corny, but it opens up a whole new world of feelings and sensations its so coool i would totally recomend it
G’day Tim
Great reading there are others that appreciate the extra sensations one gets once the shoes are discarded.
I drive around mainly barefoot, it feels far better. Now we are in winter there is nothing better than putting the floor heating vents on as I drive to work
I’ve not been brave enough to walk around the shopping malls without shoes. I don’t want to be escorted out by the security types.
The summer heat is a problem, especially in Adelaide, I’ve burnt my feet a few times.
One time when the pavement got too hot I walked along the dry grass verge until I stood on some bindi weed and got a sole full of tiny arrows.
Now I have the opposite problem, the sand on the beach in winter is pretty cold and the feet go numb quickly.
It’s a great feeling to be liberated from running shoes after 30 years.
Neil
Hi, Keep up the good work its nice to see a blog that stands out from the rest, this was a very informative read and as now been added to my favourites!!
i love to both shop online and offline, you can say that i am a shopaholic~”:
I and a friend go barefoot at college. He got kicked out of one of the academic buildings once. I solved the problem by carrying around a pair of flip flops. And really, I think the ridiculousness of their demands was kind of shoved in their faces when I would put on those tiny slivers of plastic. Because seriously, do these tiny flip flops really make that much of a difference? Nope, not at all.
uum question idk if this will be a retard moment for me but i like wearing five fingers im into the whole barefoot feel of running and all but are u ever scared youll step into somthing dangerous? (ex. glass tacks sharp objects) even dog poo would be a deal breaker for me idk
Having walked barefoot all my life, I am rather amused by the doubt i hear in these posts. Where I am, in Darwin, the no service sign for bare feet is only on the bottle-o. Elsewhere, anywhere except work, bare feet are the only option. I will admit, however, that i keep thongs in my car for the bottle-o. In my travels around Australia and the world, I have only had troubles in England, Parliament House and the odd movie theatre. If your are unsure, I advise going for it.
@gary, as you get used to walking barefoot, you will build up both a callus on your foot to protect it from small shards of glass or painfull gravel; and an awareness of where you are walking. In the past 5 years, i can count on the fingers of one hand (with digets to spare) the number of times i have stepped where i shouldn’t have, whether on glass or on dog shit, and grass is a handy solution for the latter.
@tim, a lovely description of the barefoot experience.
I went barefoot in the local mall in CArlsbad,CA after a half marathon and the obese “rent a cop” told me to put on my shoes.
My Reply: I left them at the donut shop sir;-)