People generally lived without shoes until just a few hundred years ago. Why do people all of a sudden need shoes? I can understand if someone lives in a place where there are cold seasons, but then again Crocs would not be the footwear of choice in such an environment. As far as these being for children, didn't children mostly go barefoot (mostly out of preference) in the summer until a few decades ago?

The whole idea that feet need support is bogus too. How did people survive for thousands of years with no support and now all of a sudden everyone needs it? I prefer shoes that don't have any support. Just wear whatever shoes you are comfortable in (whether they are Crocs, Rockports, or no shoes at all) and your feet will be fine.

Just a small point - many people use the argument about how people did things a long time ago to justify doing or not doing something in the modern era. Only in the last century or so has the human race had a livespan even approaching that today, so you could hang out in the sun (you'd die of TB before you'd die of melanoma) or run around barefoot(ditto on the dying before plantar fascitis set in), etc. People think that modern man is beset by a far greater number of problems than ancient man, but since most people didn't live past 40 until the last few centuries, and past 60 until this last one, most of things from which we suffer are the products of extreme longevity (relatively speaking). It seems like a lot of women get breast cancer these days, but I can't help but wonder if at least some of the high numbers are due to the fact so few of us die in childbirth any more, giving us much longer lives in which to have cancer, etc.

^^^

Bingo! In the past, people also didn't vaccinate their children or spare them from working adult hours from a very young age. Argument from tradition is no more valid than argument from novelty.

Broken glass and burning pavement.

Bare feet are tolerable on soil, sand, or grass. In more modern locales, some kind of footwear is unavoidable.

I've never quite understood the whole "falling arches" thing. But, flat-footedness used to be grounds for rejection by the draft board. I've met many a person who whined about bunions. I've never met anyone who complained of flat feet.

So, maybe we cured something with orthotic shoes.

There also used to be a very high mortality rate for children.

Not that this necessarily has any link to going barefoot, of course.. I personally would go barefoot if people wouldn't stare awkwardly. Flip-flops are the closest I can get. In California, it's starting to become sort of rare to see someone who isn't wearing flip flops.

Some people have extraordinarily odd ideas about "tradition" and what people did in the past. All it would take is a quick glance at any book about the history of clothing and/or shoes to see that people have been wearing shoes for as long as people have been in existence. The ancient Egyptians, for example, considered life impossible without sandals and shoes and constructed them from materials such as leather, papyrus and other plant fibres (palm, yucca, whatever grew in any particular region), and wood. Native Americans made shoes and boots from similar materials as well. The same kind of care was taken in their construction too, as shoes were meant to protect the feet from things like hot sand, rock, mud, cold, etc. etc. The idea that people went without shoes up until recently is simply wrong; so is the idea that they were made without concern for function or appearance. People with limited resources may have done without them because of poverty or lack of access to any kind of materials, but they've always been part of the necessities of life.

When I was growing up a famous one legged runner, Terry Fox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/­Terry_Fox) ran cross country here in Canada even though he suffered from cancer, a disease which caused the loss of his leg and eventually killed him when it spread to his lungs. He did the near 4000km trek using the running shoe "technology" which existed at the time--lightweight, no support "walking" shoes which may or may not have featured a sporty design. They provided little in the way of making life more comfortable for him, and he typically wore out each shoe quickly and actually sustained a great deal of pain from the lack of support and shock absorption considered sufficient for athletes at the time. Nowadays, shoes for running are construction with a great deal more consideration to accomodate for things like climate, surface and pressure, the minimization of impact on the joints of the foot and the body, etc--all to minimize damage to the body which comes from the repeated impact of their use. The result is better performance and a reduction in injury, simply from using the skill of design instead of relying on the idea that "one size" of anything should fit all.

Not everyone needs a supportive shoe, just those of us who have badly shaped feet.

Last time I checked the Roman legions conquered most of the then-known world wearing very simple sandals. So, yeah, burning sands and broken glass/pottery can definitely be a problem.

As to the shoes in question: I had a friend convince me to buy a pair of crocs and while they are nice and light (surprisingly so) they're also not very comfortable. I wear sandals most of the summer and have little problem with rocks, twigs, or other debris; with the crocs I'm stopping very five feet to shake something out of them. I'm not sure if it's the way I walk or the holes in the toebox or what. Either way, I'll be glad when they pass into fashion oblivion: there's no disputing their ugliness.

Dear Oldy McOlderson:

I know you are like 100 years old, but "shoes" as they have affectionately come to be known - are here to stay.

For better or worse.

Sincerely,

Citizen of the 21st Century.

People lived without clothes for a lot longer than they lived with them too. We should go back to that too. Maybe it would force some of us to lose weight.

everyone lived w/out computers decades ago too, maybe you should try living w/out that!

Not sure what history books you have read, but unless you were born in 'cave man' days.. you needed shoes. lol Not to make you sound like a total barbarian, but everone needs shoes now-a-days, if not for anything at least for hygeanic reasons alone. And not to mention, only because the past has proven that people did without shoes, believe it wasn't a choice. We live in an age where shoes are necessary to life. Not so much a luxury.

Yes, everyone needs shoes...but these shoes should be called PISS clogs (Prison Issue Shower Shoes) And yeh, I realize they are comfy ..but so is my housecoat.

Well, for one thing, most roads became paved. I'd have to say concrete is not nearly as forgiving as grass and soil. That is perhaps one reason for abounding foot diseases.

yes and most children (and adults in third world countries) who go barefoot have parasitic diseases (such as pinworm, ascariasis, bilharziasis etc). Children who go barefoot also have bee stings, cuts that get infected because they are dirty, step on rusty nails, etc etc. Nobody should go barefoot unless you are too poor to afford even flip flops. You don't mention your age, but aging feet without support eventually get plantar fascitis or tendinitis or arthritis, all painful. Thousands (or even hundreds) of years ago nobody lived long enough to have such problems.