Guest post from Sandro no.2

Sandro is writing from the perspective of somebody from the former Soviet Union where shoes-off is rather more common. Plastic bags might not be a common alternative or compromise in the west, but some of the arguments he offers against them could also be applied to shoe covers. For most people, taking their shoes-off should not be an hardship so shoe covers should not really be necessary.

On Plastic Bags

Sometimes, plastic/fabric bags are seen an altenative for slippers/stockinged feet. Yet I think there are some reasons to disfavor those:

1)whatever tramplians think of what they call the ugliness of feet, bags look obviosuly awkward, and so would feel anyone wearing them; a girl in in a Russian forum suggested such bags as an alternative when visiting homes, but everybody laughed at this suggesion.

2)such bags are really slippery and so dangerous for the wearer; a lady in a Baku forum said she had been using them in her child's kindergarten until she fell a couple of times, which made her switch to slippers.

3)street shoes are not allowed in kindergartens and hospitals around the ex-Soviet countries; visitors ar often offered bags to put on their shoes; yet quite often shoes-off is still required, with optional bags/stockinged feet/slippers; the reason is dirt from shoes still penetrates fabric and plastic, especially if there is some leakage.

4)shoe bags still don't protect parquet from heels