Thursday, May 24, 2012

Your Day Without Shoes 2012



Would you like to spend an entire day without shoes? Does it sound fun? Does it sound scary? Does it sound challenging? Maybe it just sounds… interesting. If you’d like to give it a try, then this Saturday, May 26, is the day for you!

Your Day Without Shoes is an annual event started by ThePrimalfoot Alliance to promote foot health and barefoot freedom. If you don’t know it by now, shoes are THE cause of virtually ALL of our foot problems in the United States, from bunions to blisters, corns to calluses, flat foot and fallen arches, athlete’s foot and toenail fungus, and of course, that infamous stink. Going barefoot really is SO MUCH healthier than wearing shoes, but we unfortunately live in a shoe-obsessed society. For the sake of our health, and the freedom to enjoy simply going barefoot from time-to-time, we must liberate our feet. This Saturday, spend the entire day barefoot. And don’t just sit around the house; purposely go public in your bare feet. If the thought of that sounds scary, let that be an indication to you of how shoe-obsessed our culture is. However, there is good news: most people want going barefoot in public to be socially acceptable!*

Your Day Without Shoes was started in part as a response to a campaign by TOMS shoe company (“One Day Without Shoes”). The TOMS campaign asks people to go barefoot for a day to raise awareness for poor shoeless children in Africa. I’m not going to discuss TOMS or the fact that it’s a for-profit company misrepresenting itself as a charity, but I will say that A LOT of people participate in their campaign. Many of these people are undoubtedly good people and think they are doing a charitable service, but I am also convinced that many of these people also participate because the campaign gives them an “excuse” to enjoy a day barefoot. When questioned, they say they are “raising awareness” and point to the large shoe company sponsoring the event. What jerk of a manager would kick you out because you’re suffering through the day barefoot to “raise awareness” for poor children? Besides, if they DO kick you out it only proves TOMS’ point: going without shoes is hard. Actually, the only point that is proved is that we live in a shoe-obsessed society. Which is why we need Your Day Without Shoes to highlight that our obsession with footwear is actually an unhealthy one and that we need the freedom to go barefoot for our own good health. If you really want to point them to a higher authority to justify your barefootedness, why not show them a copy of The Barefoot Book? (shameless plug!) Or just print-off the fact sheet found on my website. 

So, what do you say? Are you ready to spend an entire day without shoes? 

*according to a non-scientific but likely accurate facebook poll conducted by The Primalfoot Alliance (link).

9 comments:

  1. Have you written more extensively about TOMS elsewhere? I'd like to hear more! As a barefooter who believes shoes are generally unnecessary, I struggle to know what to make of a company that claims to charitably donate shoes to poor kids. It sounds like such a good cause . . . until you realize what you've said here: shoes actually CAUSE many problems!

    Thanks again for another thought-provoking post! I will doubtless be going out in public without shoes that day! :)

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  2. Kathleen... Here is what I had to say about TOMS last year, and there are links in it to several other good posts about that wretched company. http://barefootprof.blogspot.com/2011/07/toms-burning-candle-at-both-ends.html

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    1. Thanks, Daniel! My sister and I have both been feeling troubled about TOMS lately, but couldn't quite put words to our feelings. This will be really helpful!

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  3. Yes... Today I'm at work (unusually on saturday), but without shoes.

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  4. Would you like to spend an entire day without shoes? ... tomsslippers.blogspot.com

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. I agree with you, but unfortunately the law disagrees with #3 in many states. Not that anyone would notice, unless you got stopped for some other reason and your bare feet were then noticed.
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  8. I wanted to express my sincere appreciation for this update. You're doing an amazing job, so please continue in the same direction!

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Welcome to The Barefoot Professor blog, intelligent talk about running, walking and living barefoot. I encourage your comments, even if you disagree with me. In this spirit I don't even moderate the comments. However, PLEASE use critical thinking skills when leaving comments, and avoid inflammatory words. Please keep your comments short and to-the-point. THANKS.