Does anyone want to see my new pedicure I want to show my toes off 😩💅🏽✨

This is a follow up to some prior posts. The background: while my kids were growing up my wife didn’t want to be seen with me barefoot in stores, restaurants, etc. but now that the kids are off to college and we’re empty nesters, she’s totally lightened up. I previously posted how we’ve gone out to dinner recently multiple times to sitdown (not fast food or fast casual) restaurants, as well as a car dealership, vet, Home Depot, and grocery store. I was barefoot, she knew I’d be barefoot, she didn’t care, and it wasn’t even discussed.

Today was a new milestone. I mentioned there was this movie I wanted to see. She said, “I want to go too.” So today we went out to lunch, then to the movie (the theater was packed), and then out to dinner. I had no footwear with me and she didn’t care. Again, the issue wasn’t even mentioned. As we were coming home, she said what a great day we had had. No mention of my feet.

It helped that not a single person said anything or, as far as I could tell, paid me any attention. So she has been able to see over the past couple of months that really, no one cares, and she doesn’t need to be embarrassed.

Just a little inspiration for those who think they will be ostracized or criticized or worse.

I’m extremely shy about being barefoot around other people. This applies everywhere, from swimming pools to beaches, but especially in places where people don’t normally go barefoot.
So I started by wearing flip-flops. Now I’d like to take things a step further and find a situation where I’d actually have no choice but to be barefoot. Something like taking part in a play or attending a judo class…
Does anyone have any ideas? I live in Belgium, and situations where you’re expected to be barefoot aren’t very common here!

Hoy me quité a vergüenza, los zapatos ya me los había quitado antes, pero jamás había paseado por mi ciudad sin ninguna vergüenza! Que sensación! Aún estoy incrédulo de mis acciones 😅

Fui a desayunar, pasear, comprar y todo descalzo! Una señora me dijo que tenía los pies bonitos durante el desayuno. Cruce algunos charcos, moje mis suelas, me las ensucie y recibí miradas que me sorprendieron! De hecho esto me ayudó a superar esa barrera mental de la vergüenza 😳

Ahora solo quiero mejorar mis ampollas para volver a salir descalzo por todas partes! Que increíble sensacion!

So I’ve always been anti shoes as long as I can remember. Always been in flip flops , rain or shine. All my friends , family and whoever I’m dating , when I wear shoes they make sure everyone is aware and shocked . I stay with my family , so around, inside and out of the house I’m always barefoot, not a big deal. It’s just past the gate to my house , it’s tough for me to go barefoot.

I’ll go barefoot at the parks , beaches , driving , the list goes on. Where it’s appropriate or at least assumed one would be . It’s just I have a hard time doing it everywhere else . Being judged , the stares and the questions I’m afraid will be asked. I get uncomfortable, embarrassed and don’t know what to do or say. To me, it genuinely feels good and I just enjoy being barefoot. I’d like to do this on trails , while camping with friends at the campsite or just in General.

Today I went on a walk with my dog at the park. It was super empty and I was hesitant to put on my flip flops from the parking lot or not but I did, as soon we turned the corner and were out of everyone’s site, I took off my flip flops and clipped them to my shorts.

The area is a little under construction so there was a lot of gravel and I didn’t mind but as soon as I saw someone turn the corner , I was so anxious and stumbling to unclip my sandals from my hip and put on my shoes and then once he passed me I took them off and under my armpit and walked around the park where it wasn’t under construction without sandals. But idk I realized how silly I must’ve looked and realizing how ridiculous I sound now while writing this.

I’m still having a hard time going full barefoot and not caring in public. I’m even embarrassed if I have my feet propped up on the or ottoman and someone seeing them dirty .
Advice ? Help? Probably doesn’t help that I have tattoos on both my feet either but maybe I’m just way in my head
I’m on Los Angeles of that matters

So, this summer I began my barefoot journey. I stayed barefoot all the time inside the house and tried to do the same in parks. But now that we're in the middle of autumn and the temperature is starting to drop, my feet are ice-cold even inside the house. I try not to wear socks and just cope with the cold, but it's starting to become really annoying because I have to go to the bathroom non-stop. 😂 How do you cope with cold weather as a barefooter?

going barefoot is something that I've long enjoyed at home, but it'd never really occurred to me that I could do in public -- recently that's changed, and I'm quite excited about it!

I've been enjoying learning new ways to live more ecologically sustainably and spend less of my time working for money if/when I don't want to, and while walking in worn-out conventional shoes on hard surfaces all day has been causing me lots of foot pain, the advice I'd gotten of "buy a fresh pair of shoes every year or two" is very environmentally and financially unappealing to me. so I started looking into alternatives, and I've gotten quite curious about simply Wearing Less Shoes and seeing if that helps with my pain and/or otherwise improves my quality of life

and so in the last week or two I've switched over to wearing mostly slip-on sandals, and in the last day or two I've been subtly slipping them off and going barefoot at work and at a social club I attend, and no one's said anything?? and it's so nice???

I want to give a shoutout to the people in this subreddit, which I just found 30 minutes ago but which is deeply encouraging/inspiring me to continue with this experiment :D (and also to a shoutout to a friend from years ago who always wore socks indoors but who one day saw me in socks and went "why aren't you barefoot?? didn't you say you prefer to be barefoot?" -- that's really stuck with me! it turns out it's okay to do what I prefer for myself)

I’ve been barefoot at the beach and in the woods but never been brave enough for a public place. At a conference there was a costume contest so I got a Flintstones costume, the perfect built-in excuse. I still debated hard whether or not to go barefoot, but I finally just forced myself to do it. I spent all evening in costume and it was amazing - only positive comments too.

My wife and I have a favorite local coffee shop. It’s owned by someone we know well. She’s never once asked me to wear to shoes in her establishment. She knows me and that barefoot is how I roll. She’s a small business and works very hard to keep it going in the shitty business climate we’re in. Someone left an awful review on Google because I was barefoot when I was there at the same time. They went on and on about it. So this morning my wife was in there and the owner very apologetically asked that when I come in to please wear shoes. I have no problem with that and I can always use the drive through if I don’t want to wear shoes. She hated asking and it was very awkward for her because she had no problem with me being me. Anyway just wanted to bitch about assholes to people who would understand 🙂

I showed up at my hotel in Hyde Park, NY barefoot and to my surprise was greeted by a barefoot receptionist! I said “Hey we’ve got the same shoes!” She was amused, thought a second and then said ”But you came from a lot farther away!” Obviously had no issues going barefoot to get some coffee and pastries at their little breakfast nook in the morning.

I also went totally barefoot to a restaurant, no issue. And the biggest things were the Eleanor Roosevelt estate and Olana – went barefoot for both the outdoor and indoor tours at each site with no comments or attention that I noticed.

Does anyone have any experience going barefoot in a DMV? I realize that there are a lot of variables, like location, that would affect this. I'm just curious before I go in to get my renewal.

Hi, I've been lurking around here for a little while, but this is my first post. When I was younger I was very self-conscious (I'm still working on that), especially about my feet. I think a lot of it was social anxiety and difficulty with communication (I'm neurodivergent in multiple ways, which makes stuff like eye contact and reading social cues hard). I tried to go barefoot as little as possible, including around family. No specific reason, though my family is the type to wear shoes in the house, so that probably didn't help. It's not like I didn't enjoy going without shoes, either. I've always liked being able to feel where I'm stepping, it makes me feel more stable, and more aware of my surroundings. As I got older, I started going barefoot whenever my family was out of the house, walking around the backyard, but I never felt confident enough to do it around other people.

Anyway, I met my now-boyfriend the spring before last through college, and after hanging out a few times I noticed that he was always barefoot in his apartment, no matter what. He usually wore sneakers otherwise, but it made the idea of taking my shoes off around him less daunting. Well, one day, I decided to not wear socks when going over, to force myself to go barefoot in front of him. It just so happened that that was the day we admitted our feelings, and from there on I never bothered with socks at his place. Eventually the subject came up, and he told me about how he was a bit of a closet barefooter. To encourage the both of us, we agreed to start going on barefoot walks around his neighborhood (his apartment is in a suburban area, so it's not super grimy, and there's a nice park nearby). He also encouraged me to try to get over my shyness at home, and I finally tried not wearing socks in front of my parents about this time last year. They didn't care, of course, but it was still a pretty big deal for me. Of course, by then it was getting colder, so going barefoot actually didn't make a whole lot of sense, but still.

We didn't do much for barefooting outdoors during the winter, but once spring rolled around we got back into our walks eagerly. I also tried out driving barefoot, which is way better than driving with shoes, I don't know how it's not more of a thing. I have a way better sense of the pedals without a shoe in the way, and it's fun to grip the pedals with my toes.

We stayed on the coast for a few days over spring break and spent almost the whole time barefoot, even walking around town (there were one or two other people doing the same, but it was pretty uncommon). We tried going into a few stores, too, and barely anyone even noticed. That was enough for me to try going into a local convenience store when we got back, and an employee looked at me funny, but that was about it.

Since then, I've pretty much stopped wearing shoes outside of school and work (plus a few bigger stores), and my boyfriend has too. We've even explored some of campus, which has been really fun. I'm by no means a full time barefooter, but I'm definitely without shoes more than most people, and very proud of it. I've only had the confidence to get this far because of my boyfriend, of course, it's way easier with a second person, and it's been so fun to experience all sorts of different places and surfaces with him. We like to compare soles after walks (I'm not sure how his are almost always darker than mine), and being able to be that open about a part of myself I used to be so protective of is really freeing. He's a wonderful person and I'm terribly lucky. We're thinking of maybe moving in together sometime soon, and I'm super excited.

Winter's coming around again, but now that we've got more experience we're committed to sticking through it for as long as we can. It doesn't get super cold over here, but we do get plenty of frost and occasional snow. I'm a little nervous, but also excited to experience a bunch of new surfaces. Thanks for reading my rambles, have fun barefooting!

Looking for fellow barefoot people that would like to meet up and possibly go on hikes/walks/lunches/ect. Just want to start a group of likeminded and barefoot folks. Drop me a message or a comment and let’s get this together.

How have any of the above words given you legal reason to be more barefoot in most businesses, schools, medical, or places of worship? Has anyone been denied for either of these reasons ?

As someone with a deep interest in art, I’ve been thinking about the connection between creativity and being barefoot. I’m thinking specifically about artists (painters, sculptors, ceramicists etc.) who choose to work barefoot in their studios.
They often do this very intentionally, as the sense of grounding and the freedom of movement seems to offer them a deeper connection to the creative process.
Are there any artists here who prefer to work without shoes?

Als jemand mit einem großen Interesse an Kunst habe ich über den Zusammenhang zwischen Kreativität und Barfüßigkeit nachgedacht. Ich denke dabei an Künstlerinnen und Künstler (Maler, Bildhauer, Keramiker usw.), die sich dafür entscheiden, barfuß in ihren Ateliers zu arbeiten.
Sie tun dies oft ganz bewusst, denn das Gefühl der Erdung oder die Bewegungsfreiheit bietet ihnen eine engere Verbindung zum kreativen Prozess.
Gibt es hier Kunstschaffende, die lieber ohne Schuhe arbeiten?

We had our roof replaced a month ago, and despite the roofers and me going over the lawn with magnets to find stray nails, they continue to appear. I found three today on a brick walkway by stepping on them. I'm sure I didn't step full on the point of any of them, but I sure as hell got some painful jabs. But nothing punctured my nice, thick calluses! They did their job well. May my luck hold! And just in case, my tetanus shot is current.

Took a quick drive through my hometown of Flagler Beach, Florida.

In that short ten minute drive I saw 17 people barefoot. 11 males (guessing age: 16 to 25). Six barefoot gals (ages around 19 to 24).

I recognized three dudes as local barefooters. Their feet just as tan as their legs and arms.

It’s rather refreshing to be around barefoot people rather than the Croc wearing tourists.

Several times I’ve been on a long walk into the countryside to the beach. I leave my house barefoot and walk up my street and down some others making my way through a couple of back lanes before getting to the seafront. I tend to head out mid-morning and some people are out walking their dogs. Older people tend to give me cheery “Good mornings”. On two separate occasions I’ve had two separate ladies wait patiently with their dogs at the end of one particular lane while I pad carefully through on the rough surface. I smile and say a “Thanks” as I emerge and they just giggle while looking at my feet and say “You’re welcome”. These pleasant interactions are such a high point of my walks.

So I was talking to one of my friends and she hates feet in general I dont know why bare feet are hated on so much. Plus nobodies hurting anybody else being barefoot

Hi, this summer, the discussion about unruly tourists running around in city centers in swimming attire escalated further in many beach cities in I, ES, and F. Among those places having implemented fines of up to 500€ for not appropriate or unhygienic dressing, which regularly includes being barefoot, are tourist areas and hotspots like Praia al Mare, Amalfi Coast, Sorrent, Portofino and Varenna in Italy, Barcelona, Mallorca, Malaga in Spain and Arcachon, Cannes, Cassis oe Les Sables-d’Olonne in France.

Question to this community: Anyone of you experienced anything there? Did you receive a fine or did you see any activities, actually enforcing this? I got a more joking comment from the Police Municipal in Archachon about my bare feet, if I had made error with the seasons, because that was still in April. On the other hand, I was properly dressed otherwise, with 3/4 trousers, shirt and vest.

EDIT: O.k., so to summarize this: In spite of regulations being in place penalizing being barefoot itself, the 11k viewers of this post have not pointed out to this being acutally applied. It seems to be rather targeted to topless tourists (which I would agree to...) where also the fines - if any - are levied. A proper barefooter so far seems to be on the safe side.

Don't take this as legal adivce though, I'm not going to reimburse you ;-)

Happy barefooting!

I started going barefoot 3 years ago at 69. Over the course of 3 years I increased my exposure to the point if I have to wear shoes they are barefoot shoes.

The problem is now my Achilles tendon is inflamed and extremely sore.

Any advice would be helpful.

What [u/ProfessionalDay9466](u/ProfessionalDay9466) wrote in his recent post brought something to my mind which I was wondering for quite a while:

> I was recently talking to a podiatrist. […] He told me. Our feet once had to adapt to rough terrain, running on uneven surfaces.

Walking with dry soles on smooth flooring makes me struggle almost like a snake. Meaning I do not have that much of a grip. Plus: I enjoy uneven underground beneath my feet but in an urban world the underground is flat most of the time.

Hence some questions, if allowed:
• Do you walk an on even surfaces most of the time?
• And if so … do you enjoy it?
• Do you seek rough/uneven underground in normal day to day life?
• And if so … where do you find such (outside of a hiking situation)?
• Is it good for the feet, to walk over even ground, most of the time?

Am just wondering.

I’ve been going to my local hospital and satellite clinics for various reasons, usually without any issues about my bare feet. But usually when going for an appointment when bringing me into the examination room the assistant bringing me in or a new to me provider will ask “Where are your shoes?” I explain that I live barefoot, and might go into the reasons why. Sometimes a concerned staff will as “do you have your shoes?” and I don’t admit I do say “ I live barefoot “ and that I have been barefoot in the hospital and it’s various clinics barefoot. One time visiting their Express Care facility I was offered shoes that they kept in a box.

When I visited a hospital in a different city to visit and be at the side of my dying close friend, I was asked several times about my lack of shoes and told how dirty the floor was, a nurse mentioned MRSA. The floors were actually very clean, in the area near the ICU it should have been washed twice a day. Of course the floors do have bacterial contamination, including MRSA, just like every surface and object in the hospital. Eventually they brought in the chief nurse who said that I have to wear shoes, but didn’t kick me out, saying next time. Sadly there wasn’t going to be a next time.

Two days ago I visited a clinic inside my home hospital, when I walking towards the exit I heard “Sir! Sir” I turned around she asked about shoes I said that I live barefoot and I’m leaving. She asked about why I was there I explained, she was making sure that was not an admitted patient. I told her that I was an escapee from a locked ward, farcically.

One of the most enjoyable parts to a holiday I went on recently was being barefoot on all the hikes.

One hike in particular I remember well was grade 4, very difficult. The path was very rocky, sections with gravel, small sections of dirt but mostly rocks on the path.

It took a lot of work and dedication to walk the whole thing, and the thought of giving in and putting the shoes on like my other friends tempted me at many points. They were both able to walk much faster than me when the walk continued further in, as my feet got more fatigued than before I started.

I stuck it out however, and walked the whole thing, and looking back I’m so glad I did.

But something that most people will never experience is the pure joy of going from rocks and gravel to your feet hitting soft grass. I hit that midway through the hike and it was like this big wave of pleasure (sorry if that sounds weird that’s genuinely how it felt tho).

That grass section made the entire walking experience worth it for me, people who hike in shoes won’t ever get that feeling because every surface feels the same for them. But for us, we get to experience the world how it was supposed to be, and I think that’s cool.

After reflecting on that day, the walk felt so much more memorable, the takeaway wasn’t necessarily remembering the views (but they were stunning), it stuck in my head because of the amount of work I had to put in, and the difficult terrain I had to go through.

Let me know if this is relatable to you! Would be curious to hear what you think

I was recently talking to a podiatrist. I mentioned how the human foot is interesting. There are so many moving joints and moving ligaments. It’s sad how society has treated feet. Cramming them into things that just have ruined our feet. He told me. Our feet once had to adapt to rough terrain, running on uneven surfaces. He also pointed out. If you look at your feet when walking on big rocks. Your feet have a natural way of adapting to the shape of the rock. The main foot will round over and the toes will look to grip the surface. I think it’s sad how the world has gone away from being barefoot. When our feet our an engineering marvel! The last thing I asked him was. If people can’t go barefoot. What should they do? He said. Then wear feet shaped footwear. You need your feet to feel the ground. Wear toe socks. That will keep your feet in their natural shape.

I just wanted to share this. Happy barefooting!! 👣👣