shoes

Barefoot professor in Virginia preaches shoelessness

Daniel Howell, a biology professor at Virginia's Liberty University, is on a "crusade to challenge America's cultural addiction to shoes", according to a feature in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that has hit the wires.
Howell "likens the shoe to a cast that immobilizes an otherwise healthy foot and prevents it from functioning as nature intended," the article says.
His argument doesn't always go over well in restaurants. So he carries a letter from the state health department that says bare feet in a restaurant is not a health code violation.
Howell teaches biology at Liberty and is required to wear shoes in the classroom. He took to barefoot walking by way of barefoot running, a practice that is, by contrast, well within the bounds of social acceptability.
He is author of "The Barefoot Book: 50 Great Reasons to Kick Off Your Shoes".