Addressed: Can I Wear Flip-Flops in the City?
Flip-flops are still trending. Let’s talk about the health risks of “showing toe.”
Reported by Vogue.
Every summer, the same exhausting debate resurfaces alongside the humidity: are flip-flops acceptable city footwear, or a full-on public health crisis? According to Vogue, the answer sits somewhere between both extremes — and it's more medically interesting than the culture war around it suggests.
The anti-flip-flop contingent tends to frame their objection as aesthetic — nobody wants a close encounter with a stranger's calluses on the L train, fair — but the real argument worth having is structural. Manhattan podiatrist Dr. Rock Positano makes the case that extended flip-flop wear is genuinely hard on the body. His vacation clients, trekking from Italian piazzas to island boardwalks, regularly call in with foot and ankle pain after hours of walking in flat, unsupported sandals. "People don't realize that when you're on vacation, you're going to basically quadruple your walking and your standing," he says. "The foot and the ankle and the lower extremities are not accustomed to this." The shoe that feels effortless for a beach run to grab a coffee becomes a liability across five miles of cobblestone.
The Dirt Problem Is Real, and Easily Solved
Then there's the pavement factor. City sidewalks are not your friend — mystery puddles, ambient grime, the occasional biological unknown — and exposed skin is exposed skin. Dr. Positano documented a patient who walked barefoot through Central Park, nicked her foot without realizing it, and spent six to eight weeks treating a serious infection that required an infectious disease specialist. A small cut is all it takes. Designer Emily Dawn Long, a self-described Georgia girl with California roots, has a more grounded approach: she scrubs her feet with a dedicated brush every time she comes home. Practical, unglamorous, effective. "I am shocked at how dirty they get, actually," she admits.
None of this means flip-flops are forbidden. A short walk, a beach day, a Sunday-morning errand run in your Havaianas? Completely defensible. The mistake is treating them like an all-day urban shoe — the kind of decision your joints will invoice you for by evening. Know what you're asking of your feet before you commit to a full day on pavement in a rubber sole with zero arch support.
Wear the flip-flops — just don't pretend they're built for the city's demands, because your body keeps the receipts.
Read the original at Vogue.
