My first exposure to barefooting was watching my mother, who, however,
would only ever kick away her shoes in her leisure time in the country far
away from work.  Like most people I supposed it would be more or less
impossible to not wear shoes in the city, but this changed when during a
university strike a colleague in a protest office set the example of
showing up without shoes about every other day. I did likewise,
experiencing the summer extreme of the asphalt temperature scale, but
would regularly wear shoes for a year to come.

Two years ago, in summer again, I remembered the experiment and - not for
any apparent reason, but alongside a few other changes - I dropped my boots
permanently. Summer prepared me for the roughness of winter, for the major
problem in the cold season was not so much the temperature, as on dry
ground -10 oC are no great problem, and even wading through snow proved
feasible for the <500 m distances from home to the subway and from there to
university, but the gravel they still use instead of salt and which,
freshly ground and applicated in high cencentrations as it is, hurts like a
million needles. No, winter would not be the best time to start barefooting
around here.

Overall public acceptance has been fair enough: While comments reached from
"eh, look, sir, I've got this pair of old shoes here, if you'd like to try
them on ..." from a not-too-well-off looking guy in a subway over the
comment of a man who identified himself as a doctor and prophecized
inflammation of the bladder (term. tech.?) to the usual "forgot your
shoes?" of badly educated kids. However, I must confess that I am
sociopathic enough to have literally evaded most comments, positive or
negative, by walking faster than any observers.

For it is most certainly untrue that you walk measurably slower not
wearing shoes. I hold pace with almost all people without hurting or
getting out of breath, and I am able to overtake most, which is lucky,
after all walking (barefoot) provides for a good part of my short- and
medium distance mobility.

Since most of this probably sounded too technological and unemotional,
for the record: I'm an atheist and only walk barefoot because it is both
the most comfortable and the cheapest way to walk.