Today is Earth Day. It’s a good day to appreciate Mother Earth skyclad and earthsoled.
For how else can we really be intimate with our origin?
Most folks are familiar with the term “skyclad” for being naked. The term is wonderfully evocative. Of course, “sky” really doesn’t handle our feet, since they are looking down at the earth and catch only glimpses of the sky as we raise our feet as we walk. So, in a parallel construction, I’ve added the word “earthsoled”.
But there are problems with these words: they get commercialized.
I thought about using “earthshod”. But there is a psychic in the state of Washington with the website Earthshod. It looks really hokey. It also doesn’t seem to have a darn thing to do with bare feet.
And we of course already know how “earthing” and “grounding” have been taken over by pseudo-scientific woo.
Doing a search for the word “earthsoled” brings up references to Earthwalk Orthotics, which sells a product called “Earthsoles”. Hint: orthotics are nothing like walking on the earth. Their whole purpose is to limit the flexibility of the natural foot, which is the exact opposite of what happens when you are truly earthsoled, walking barefoot on natural earth. (And of course they also prevent your soles from touching and feeling the earth.)
This sort of co-opting words to end up meaning the opposite of what they really meant is really annoying.
Even the word “skyclad” is co-opted. There is a British folk-metal band called Skyclad.
Skyclad, the Band
Funny, they don’t look skyclad to me.
But at least they, or any other companies, are not trying to sell clothing using the idea that “skyclad” clothing feels as good as going naked. You never see clothing like this with a “skyclad” label. “It’s as good as going skyclad!”
Skyclad?
Yet we see it all the time with footwear brands: “It’s as good as going barefoot!”
No. It is not.
Anyways, I guess I’ll have to go with “earthsoled”. It’s not been polluted too badly, yet, the way the Earth itself was so polluted back in the 1970s, and which prompted the call for Earth Day.
So celebrate Earth Day earthsoled today (and maybe even skyclad). And that will also let you celebrate Earth Day earthsouled. And in the end you will be earthsold.
Earthsoled
Ahcuah 
I like that word, although it could easily be corrupted (perhaps even….Earthsold 😉 ).
Why is it that we hear again and again “It’s as good as going barefoot!” describing shoes?
Because it’s a nice feeling to be barefoot, but unfortunately it’s totally impossible to go barefoot except on a soft carpet or fine sandy beach at slightly above room temperature.(Or so the shoe makers seem to think when they make shoes to give a barefoot feeling.)
We all know from our own experience that it’s a nice feeling – but we also know that the “impossibility” implied by too many shoe companies is a myth. It’s possible and it feels good.
Let’s not forget the companies can also count on the low social acceptance of bare feet. I think buyers seek to come close to the feeling of walking barefoot without the hassles. “Barefoot shoes” is a misnomer, but “minimal shoes” is OK in my opinion and “almost like barefoot” a useful shorthand.
Some “shoes like barefoot” aren’t “minimal” at all. Their makers start with a footprint in the sand and build a shoe around it, with an insole shaped like the footprint, unfortunately neglecting any flexibility that would be required to allow a close-to-natural movement. And of course in these shoes feet are enclosed, not free, which means you just feel a different variation of the shoe-feeling, never anything like the advertised barefoot-feeling.
True, but there are more flexible designs, and some may be just awful. Wearing any kind of shoe is of course different from being barefoot.
I have some “minmal” “toe” shoes myself, and sometimes people ask me if they’re comfortable and give a “barefoot feeling”. My answer is “yes”, and “only in some aspects, like absence of a raised heel and more movement for the toes”. And I’m not always in the mood to correct them when they call them “barefoot shoes”.
[…] a minimalist life. For me, minimalism is not an end in itself, but when you are pledged to remain earthsoled at all times, you do not need shoes and socks. That quite simply means to throw them away. Yes, […]