I played tennis yesterday morning as part of a Tuesday bunch of friends and acquaintances. One of them mentioned to me that he’d seen this thing on Facebook about This Dude Didn’t Wear Shoes For 8 Years!.
It was described as gross . . . and it was.
I explained that those pictures were NOT representative of barefooters. I showed him the bottoms of my feet, and I haven’t worn shoes for 18 years. My feet just look . . . like feet.
There are folks who seem to just “get off” on filthy feet, and seem to make the effort to get them as disgustingly dirty as they can. I have no idea if there is a sexual component to them, but I do know that they have a terrible effect on the rest of us who are simply desiring to live our lives barefoot.
The story above was actually a summary from a different location, here: Man Hasn’t Worn Shoes in 8 Years. There, here is what the text says
So here we are again doing out part for the society as usual. You all know how we are ingrained with this information since birth that it is absolutely essential to wear shoes at all times and to not roam around naked. Well here in this gallery we bring to you the man who did no wear any shoes for eight consecutive years and look what happened to his feet. He practically has his own leather soles now thanks to the toughness and roughness the feet had to bear. So keep it in mind folks, not wearing shoes is so not cool.
So now a bunch of people think that this is normal, and all it does is reinforce their beliefs that going barefoot is “so not cool”.
But it’s based on these sorts of displays by fetishists.
I am somewhat reminded of a similar problem that naturists have. Now, genuine nudists are very careful to make the separation between a lack of clothes and sex, and make it quite clear that sex at nude beaches is not appropriate. But there are those who go to them for that purpose anyways. And because of that the nude beaches get shut down, ruining it for everybody. The Naturist Action Committee has to spend a lot of time and money fighting such efforts on behalf of those who do behave.
Here’s one of the pictures from the story.
Deliberately Filthy Foot
After playing tennis, I went out hiking, at Conkle’s Hollow and Vulture Point in Hocking Hills. So I took some pictures of my own feet while hiking.
Remember that these are feet that have been going barefoot for 18 (not just 8) years.
My Hiking Foot
Now, that is just a dirty foot, not a foot that is deliberately kept dirty. The trail was a bit muddy, so it had picked up a bit of dirt (some of it has now dried, but you can see some of it is also still wet). But it is not the embedded, carefully nurtured (ugh), filth of the other photograph.
And it comes right off. A little later (at the tip of Conkle’s Hollow), I did a quick rinse in the creek there.
A Quick Rinse
Most of the dirt came right off. Yeah, you can still see a little bit left, but then I didn’t try too hard—just a light swish.
By the way, at about this point one guy in a group going the other direction make a comment about how impressed he was that I was hiking barefoot. Here’s a standard phrase I use a lot in that situation: “It looks more impressive than it really is.” I want to let folks know that it is something that they can do, too (and maybe they’ll give it a try).
Here’s another one of the filthy photos from the article.
The “Dirty Sole” Pose
Again, that is not representative—you have to work to do that. You have to care about having disgusting soles for that to happen. You have to want to have a picture of that to prompt you to let your feet look like that. [Edit, added to clarify based on a comment I got via Facebook: Yes, the bottoms of feet can get pretty dirty in an urban environment. There are various oils that come from cars and trucks, and small particles of tires. But it comes off from walking on concrete sidewalks, or grass, or trails of all sorts. While I suppose it is possible never to manage to walk on those other surfaces that tend to clean the soles, I am dubious. The filth in those soles in the picture is well-embedded, and, I really suspect, quite deliberate.]
In comparison, here’s the bottom of my own feet further on into the hike (about three-quarters of a mile further on).
Normal Hiking Soles
That is what feet should look like. Relatively clean with obvious pliable, leather-like soles. The only things disgusting in that picture are the big toes damaged from 40 years of shoe-wearing from before I started going barefoot.
Enough of the disgust. Let me finish with some pictures from the hike.
Here’s the broader view looking up Conkle’s Hollow.
Looking Up Conkle’s Hollow
There was still a bit of ice around, in some of the side hollows.
An Ice Chunk in the Hollow
I visited Vulture Point, and then headed north to the next point, which has an impressive slump rock. For that, I climbed down (fairly easy access) and took a closer look at the slump gap.
Slump Rock Gap
The gap has been blocked there by some fallen rocks, including that pointy one pointing straight down. However, there is still a space small enough (the dark spot on the right) to creep into. Here’s the view from the other side, looking back out.
Past the Point
Looking the other direction, I took a (stitched) panoramic shot.
Sweeping the Gap
That sweeps from the bottom of the gap (the leaves) to looking pretty much overhead (near the top of the picture).
I finally ended up in Vulture Cave, which is under and a bit behind Vulture Point. This is well-protected from the sun, with a large overhang and an eastern exposure. There was still a large chunk of ice there.
Inside Vulture Cave . . . With Ice
(Yes, I’m standing a little funny there. I had just clambered onto the ice, and I was also trying not to slip on it. Click for a larger version.)
On the right side of the rock you can also see a small sheet of ice that had been higher up the rock, slid down, and re-fused to the rest of the ice.
Going through that sandy dirt, my feet picked up a bit of it again. But it wasn’t any sort of ingrained filth, and by the time I hit the parking lot, my feet were clean again.
The way they are for barefooters who aren’t in it to see how filthy they can make their feet. The way they are for barefooters who like to show others that barefooting can be normal.
Ahcuah 
This has always been an issue for me. My feet have never, ever, looked like some of those that supposed barefooters post… like you, I’ve been barefoot almost everywhere and in all times and seasons. Even the blackest and sootiest of sidewalks in Chicago and San Salvador don’t make feet look like those pictures. I’m glad you’ve shown those “wanna-be’s” for what they really are –
Perhaps why the Dirty Sole Society changed their name to the Society for Barefoot Living? Too much negative connotation.
Dan: Exactly.
Good for this guy, looks like some rich guy just traveling and enjoying his life. It’s pitiful that you fellas have chosen to bash this guy. He can do whatever the hell he wants. Doesn’t bother me in the least.
Also, when you travel (looks like Europe) you realize that everything is 100% diesel, and there is a soot that covers all surfaces. I have experienced this first hand, my feet got much dirtier, much quicker, every day touring Europe than any normal day in the US.
I can tell you that there is absolutely no comparison between the environment Bob is showing (Eastern woodlands) compared to the dirty foot guy (European cityscape). Zero, none, zilch.
You are off-base this time, Bob, sorry. It happens to the best of us.
Dear Robert the Bob, I look to my soles only at night, after I washed my feet, so I don’t know how they look along the the day. I suspect they go changing colours all the time. This moment I’m at home after lunch and I my soles are very dirty after the city errands, but now I’m going the the rowing club so I suspect that very soon they will be clean.
Anyway, I agree with you that there are some guys who have some special interest in having dirty soles….or a suntanned face…or a special-looking car 🙂
With a great embrace, your friend
Machi
I remember one time when I was at the The Hague bus station, had to wait a while for the bus so I wandered around a bit, and while I don’t check the bottom of my feet that often, that time I did (maybe because I was just wandering & waiting, :)). I noticed that my feet were indeed that black, and I was a bit bothered because I was on my way to an indoor meeting. I figured I’d have to make sure to clean them when I got there. So the bus finally arrived, I got on, got off at my stop and had to walk about a block and a half on the sidewalk (short residential blocks, not the mile-long city blocs). As I got to my destination, I checked my feet, expecting to have to do some rubbing the grass or perhaps a tip-toe trip to the restroom…. not so, in that short distance it’d come off already and my feet were just a light greyish on the bottom. I still wiped them well on the doormat, as I usually do. 🙂
I could have taken a pic if I’d taken pride in dirty black soles, but I am not and I didn’t have a camera with me either at the time. I have sometimes taken pics of my soles as they were pretty dirty like after a road race (because I was proud there was no damage after what was at the time my longest run) and after a muddy trail (before & after the shower pics, not to show off the dirt but to show how easy it is to wash off!). My guess is this guy is watching his feet and taking the pics at the dirtiest moments because that is what he likes, I suspect his soles will wear down to a light grey just like any of ours if he walks different places.
This posting has generated a fair bit of controversy on Facebook, too.
My major concern, and what I tried to convey, is that the articles I linked to are terrible publicity for barefooting. All it does is reinforces the prejudices of the anti-barefooting (even those mildly anti-barefoot) crowd.
I’ve gotten really filthy soles before, from street grime: oil and asphalt and, believe it or not, small rubber particles from tires. But you won’t see picture after picture after picture of me out there like that.
In fact, most of the pictures I post here of me barefoot have the intent of showing that you can do this barefoot, and you can do this, and you can do this. And they just show me doing it . . . barefoot.
Obviously, the guy in the picture is free to do what he likes (and there may be plenty of photos of him not showing filthy soles, too). But I’m also free to note that all those dirty-sole pictures can make things difficult for other barefooters.
After all, I was prompted to write this blog entry when I was specifically asked about it at tennis, and I had to show him my soles for him to realize it wasn’t necessarily typical.
And isn’t anybody going to comment on the cool pictures from the hike? 😉
I just shook my head as that series of pictures (from wherever, probably republished without the consent of the person) mentioned broken glass and tetanus … Tetanus is what you may get if you don’t vaccinate. I have my vaccinations, I’m not invulnerable either but I never had tetanus because there’s a good way to protect yourself against it: vaccinate.
The risk of being republished with such bad remarks is why I don’t publish photos of myself with dirty feet, and don’t pose like that for photos (and write under a pseudonym).
Feet just reflect how clean or dirty their environment is. They will get dirty but also clean again. But it is true that the reluctance to go barefoot anywhere outside is that many people don’t like to get dirty. When you are outside you get dirty by touching things and as long as you are in a planet’s gravity it’s unavoidable you touch the ground with (at least) your feet.
I personally dislike sweating more than getting dirty, and my feet tend to sweat in shoes, just one of many reasons to prefer going barefoot. I don’t like the feeling of sticky dirt on my feet so I try to clean it off when I get the chance.
You have been to a wonderful hiking area, Bob! Looking at your “hiking soles” I noticed another thing, how smooth the skin is. Do you do anything against the rough edges? (I use a file every couple of days … on dry clean skin.)
… sorry if that sounded a bit convoluted. What I mean is: People don’t want to get dirty, so they don’t go barefoot (and miss the wonderful feeling they would have if they did). It’s natural to avoid dirt but then you should realize that “dirt” is just part of the world around you and it’s unavoidable to get some on yourself, you can just as easily wash it off, just find a bit of water, even walking across a strip of grass will get rid of most of the dirt. And of course as anybody knows who tries, going barefoot for any period of time, eight or eighteen or eighty years, does not have to result in “terribly disgusting feet”.
I don’t put my feet on chairs, beds or tables when they are not clean. At least never outside my own home. Certainly not in trains or buses, blocking seats is impolite and irresponsible.
I see where you are coming from here, Bob, but you will not find a more judgmental crowd on Earth, than Facebook commentators. So good luck that one.
What I usually say to people first when they question me is: “I don’t wear shoes, it’s highly unusual”. It’s a way for me to establish common ground with the person, it’s true, and it works.
So I can’t agree that we should show people that barefoot is normal, rather that there is nothing wrong with doing something that is clearly abnormal.
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life. – Winston Chuchill
I’ve sometimes joked that there are certain stores that don’t want us in their places barefoot because it shows up on our soles just how poorly cleaned their floors are.
Unci, if you don’t mind, I’ll hold off answering your question about heel edges and skin. I have enough to say that I can make a whole blog entry on it. Maybe some time next week.
Wow, this sparked some debate. I think I’ve got to get a disposable facebook account for replying to this stuff again. It’s amazing how many people are defending bare feet and questioning the post. People so precious about their feet, yet they have ruined them with shoes. I think more people need to point out how dirty it is inside a shoe, even that guy’s feet are clean by comparison.
That panorama from the leaves to the sky was awesome.
When I was a kid, we always called the effect “grocery store feet”. I haven’t heard anyone say that in a long time. It is really surprising how dirty those places are.
I think a lot of people are missing the point on this issue. To a lot of barefooters, having dirty soles is like earning a badge of courage and saying to yourself and others that going barefoot in public is something that not a lot of people in general will do .Barefooters showing their dirty soles to other barefooters is like letting them see their merit badge. I don’t think that Facebook is a good place to show your dirty soles or other barefoot pics because that site has more of a high school mentality and you are more likely to get more critics and other types of non-barefoot friendly remarks. The best place to show your feet pics is on other barefoot or other sites that are less known in the social media world.
I don’t want to start yet another argument here, but I lived in Europe for nearly 10 years, not all that long ago. It is FAR cleaner than the US in terms of street dirt, and while diesel fuel may predominate there, they have had exhaust systems invented by the Germans that reduce pollution to primarily water. Super-oddly, those exhaust systems were banned from this country until recently, so we still have massive amounts of carbon pollution from using primarily old ineffective diesel exhaust systems. London in the ’70’s had a distinctive reek of diesel fuel, but that smell (which I rather liked) is totally absent today.
Over about 7 years of going fulltime barefoot (more than in the US, because people in Europe mostly think going barefoot is healthy, not unhealthy like in the US,–I almost never got criticisms there) my experience was very close to Bob’s: it was actually hard to get my feet dirty. Also, in northern Europe, it rains more often than it is dry, so sidewalks and streets are washed frequently by nature.
I agree with Tom that dirty feet don’t bother me personally–less than tattoos, actually,–but I am fully aware they are a perception problem in the US. But then, going barefoot in the US is tantamount to exposing your genitals in the US–super Calvinist Puritans that most people around me here are.
I got a pair of Barefoot Feet. They are made of neoprene and I now wear them everywhere and puddles are the most fun. I like that the bottom of my feet don’t get dirty anymore.
Hello to all,
I found this article through the searching machines and I was quite irritated how much certain situations can be misinterpreted!
I am that dude who is shown as someone who likes to post filthy feet.
I am going now barefoot since more than 20 years – always and the truth behind all those pics is a nine weeks Europe/Africa expedition, which I managed all barefoot without the “normal” pedicure & cleaning procedure, as in my regular life!
I indeed walked under the hardest conditions possible – every day – in the heat, on sharp gravel, on burning hot asphalt, in sand, grass, mud, over thorns and anything you can imagine.
No wonder why my soles looked so dirty & that the calluses started to crack after a while.
Everyone who does extreme sport may look wired in some situations and it was the hardest feet treatment you can imagine. I am very proud that my soles were able to withstand those conditions and I wanted to keep it mind by taking photos. It was simply a story to tell!
But being an always barefooter in my real life likewise, I do get dirty feet every day, but with a shower and treatment my feet look almost clean before the end of the day!
Hope you understand it now somehow better and from the uncountable positive reactions over decades of showing up in my bare feet in any real time situation, I guess I am a good ambassador for “going barefoot”!!!!
OK it all depends on the environment and personal habits when going barefoot. Everyone should be supported for the lifestyle, be it dirty or cleaner. No one should feel superior to another. Just my two cents in reply.