Head first? Feet first.
If I step one in front of the other
I will move forward
Not backwards
Nor sideways
But forward
Feet. Wonderful body parts, yet so weird — almost as though our fingers decided to shrink and relocate. But nevertheless, they are able to withstand the weight of everyday chaos, and still manage to stick to our legs.
As our chaos has descended to the great indoors, our need for shoes has consequently diminished. And even though the discussion of the latest sneaker trends and the longing to wear heels again (or not) may be top of mind, there has been little discussion about what not wearing shoes every day, religiously, is doing to us.
About two months into the pandemic I got back to being more consistent with running, until I couldn’t put pressure on my left foot at all for two weeks. Turns out, because I was walking around the house barefoot or in zero-support slippers, my feet just gave up on me.
Solution = wearing my ugly in-sole supports around the house.
And now, months later, nothing has changed. My much loved sneakers still remain unworn and crisp (maybe that’s a good thing? Minimal crease opportunity) in their boxes. And when the warmer weather comes around again (if the lockdown restrictions remain largely unchanged), I’ll be avoiding all forms of footwear.
So amidst the pain of my feet and longing for my shoes, I noticed two things:
- When we do eventually get back to some form of “normality”, the way we wear shoes might not be the same. Especially if we have not recognised how badly we’ve been mistreating our feet.
- Our ability to express ourselves through our shoes has become exceptionally limited. Not just from a fashion standpoint, but from a position that enables us to separate moments of our day. Endings and beginnings.
Which brings me to what the internet has dubbed “flintstone feet”:
“It can happen after months and months of working at home barefoot or wearing flip-flops. Ligaments stretch out, arches begin to fall and putting on anything with a heel can be a pain. It’s named for the classic cartoon about a prehistoric family living before shoes were invented” — Joy Sewing, Houston Chronicle
Continuing from my first point, because we are rolling out of bed and are either walking around our space barefoot or in slippers, we are not recognising the strain we are putting on our feet. Eliminating the routine of putting on our “day shoes” may at first seem like a shift towards a more comfort-infused day, but the prolonged effects of not wearing shoes with sufficient support can be detrimental.
The medical side to this means that people have yet to realise the effect of the pandemic on their feet as a result of wearing non-supportive shoes. Doctors have already seen an increase in common heal and tendon problems (such as plantar fasciitis and tendinitis), so I can only assume that this will continue to increase as we begin to phase out of the pandemic.
Even though our beloved shoes are sitting and gathering dust, we should re-approach them with caution. Swinging quickly from home-comfort shoes to the usual sneakers, heals or sandals might result in a shock to our feet and reconstruct what we believe to be “comfortable” footwear.
Speaking of comfort and getting the most out of a pair of shoes, according to the Wall Street Journal,
“Crocs was the only footwear brand among the top 30 tracked by researchers at NPD Group to record sales growth in March, a 14% increase compared with the same month in 2019. It was also one of the two companies, along with sheepskin boot-maker Ugg, to log growth in April.”
Although Crocs’ popularity has been fuelled by a series of celebrity collaborations, there is no doubt that their popularity has also surged as a result of the need-for-comfort during the pandemic. As we become more accustomed to relaxed casual-wear in our homes, surely we will want to continue feeling comfortable post-pandemic as well?
Meaning that we will want to transfer the comfort from inside the walls of our homes to the outside world. Will this change how we were shoes? I don’t know. But I do think that we will become more aware of how comfortable our feet feel and start to become more aware of them. Interesting how they are one of the primary tools in our day-to-day life, yet receive very little attention with regard to maintaining, nourishing and caring for them.
Which leads me onto my next point regarding self-expression — a topic which seems to have become muddled amidst the difficulty we are facing currently with regard to separating and distinguishing moments of our day. Choosing a pair of shoes and wandering out onto the streets knowing that your shoes complete your outfit is undoubtedly the cherry on top of a good-start-to-the-day. But that just doesn’t happen anymore.
Because we are limited in the ways we can express ourselves inside our homes (and our torso on Zoom), finding the middle-ground between trend and comfort has never been more relevant. Hence why Crocs have landed themselves in the perfect position amidst the world’s great stalling. Of course, this isn’t just something that is being seen in footwear. Ranging from skincare routines to at-home hair-dye kits, we are becoming masters of self-expression in a completely new environment.
As we battle to overcome the endless cycle of being indoors, our perception of time passing during the day has become warped to the point where we struggle to distinguish between beginnings and endings. Getting up, having breakfast, brushing your teeth and putting your shoes and jacket on to go to work sets a clear beginning. Likewise, swinging open the front door, putting down an armful of groceries and kicking off your shoes sets a distinct ending.
A huge sigh of relief.
But now we don’t have the “kick off the shoes feeling”. We either always have them off or always have them on (if you wear slippers). Shoes clearly do not only enable us to express ourselves (whether it be fashion or comfort), but also enable us to set clear beginnings and endings.
Being indoors has reshaped these “beginnings and endings” so much that they have not only confused our feet (possibly causing inner damage we are yet to become aware of) but also our relationship with routine. We no longer come home to “kick off our shoes” and “put our feet up”. Because we don’t have a reason to “kick our shoes off” in the first place.
Unless you hate your slippers.
So as we begin to phase out of the pandemic, I suspect that our demand for comfort will not only continue, but transcend into all aspects of our life. That does not imply that we will begin to wear slippers to work, but rather become more conscious of our choices in favour of a more comfortable lifestyle, with a heightened opportunity to redefine our “beginnings and endings”.
