Bonfire trouble

Author – Nate

One summer night a few years back my friend Ashley and I decided to drive out to her family’s property and have a bonfire. As the night went on we are drinking and enjoying the fire when I took notice of her Twisted X moccasins. I asked if I could see one because they were pretty cool looking, she slipped her right one off revealing her fluorescent pink sock and handed it to me but threatened don’t try it on! So instantly I kicked my right Nike air max off and put it on, she jumped out of her chair and I took off running. So I ran around a bit to the edge of the corn field she gave up chase in one shoe and went back to the chairs and picked up my shoe and said playfully I’ll toss your shoe in the fire if you don’t give me mine back. So I make my way back over to her and try to grab my shoe when she jumped back and threw it, straight into the fire. I couldn’t believe she actually did it! About that same time she realized that she messed up because I was still wearing her right shoe. She then tried to tackle me to the ground to get her shoe back but that backfired when I grabbed her left shoe revealing her neon green sock, I laughed saying wrong night to wear bright mismatched socks as I quickly tossed her left twisted x into the fire close to my burning nike. As we were both sitting on the ground watching the shoes burn she grabs my left nike off my foot and puts it on her foot and stands up grabs a couple beers from the cooler and hands me one and we just start laughing. Us both in one shoe, each others shoe, we sat back in our chairs and joked about it the rest of the night. The fire died down and we decided to take off she left wearing my nike on her left foot and pink sock on her right and I kept her twisted x on my right foot and white sock on my left. Both having a souvenir of that fun night!

A Shoeplay Story Part 3 – My Turn to be the Teacher

Author – Shoelessguy7

When it was time to leave JJ and I grinned looking at each other’s sneakers and proudly walked out of our classroom with our shoes flopping off our feet.  We each got on our respective buses heading for home.  However my confidence wavered upon reaching my house.  Walking up I spotted my mom’s car parked in the driveway.  She must have got off work early today I thought.  I slowed my pace trying to think of a plan but no ideas came to mind.   After stepping up to the front porch, I slipped out of my shoes and pushed them to the side.  I stealthily opened the door and peered inside keeping an eye out for my mom.  She wasn’t nearby so I grabbed my sneakers and headed up the stairs to my room.  Placing my shoes just under my bed, I thought I was in the clear.  Of course, at the time I wasn’t thinking at all about that she always drives me to the bus stop in the morning.   After a good night’s rest I got dressed, grabbing a grey T-shirt, black shorts and white socks with grey heals and toes, then I headed downstairs for breakfast.  With a satisfied belly, I dashed back up to my room to collect my backpack and homework.  I put everything together and reached down for my shoes when I froze.  I had completely forgotten my shoes had no laces in them and my mom was at the door calling me to hurry up.  In my panic, my brain was just going around in circles thinking, what do I do, what do I do?  If I put them on, I know she would see them for sure.  I decided, instead of putting my backpack on, I would simply carry it in my right hand holding my shoes just behind my backpack.  Insanely nervous I walked down the stairs in my socked feet.  Somehow, probably because we were late, my mother didn’t question it as we hurried to the car.  I took a small breath as I put my shoes on the floor with my backpack on top of them.  Half way there, I thought.  After a 3 to 5 minute drive, my mom pulled up and put the car in park.  “Have a good day” she said as she gave me a quick kiss on my forehead.  I opened the car door while at the same time picking up my shoes and quickly tossing them to the ground hoping she wouldn’t notice.  I slipped my socked feet into my shoes and proceeded toward the bus stop as she drove away.  After her car was out of sight, I stared down at my black high top Nikes, laceless, with the tongues hanging forward, almost in shock.  I can’t believe that worked, I thought.  I get to go to school with no laces in my shoes just like JJ.  With a bewildered expression across my face, I headed towards my bus mates with my shoes slipping off my feet as they made clucking sounds against the pavement as I walked. 

Everyone began to line up as the bus rounded the corner and now was heading towards us.  Still not being completely accustomed to wearing them laceless, when I took the high steps to get on the bus, my right shoe unexpectedly slid off my foot and came to rest a step down from me in the doorway.  I spun around quickly but the boy behind me, Marcus, who was in the grade above me, in flash grabbed it and pushed past me running toward the back of the bus.  “Give it back!” I demanded while I chased after him.  He sat down in the seat third from the back on the right.  He responded “Aww, c’mon, let’s just have some fun with it”.  “Use your own shoe then” I said sitting down in the empty seat across from him.  After removing his backpack he placed my shoe behind him.  He was a pretty tall athletic kid with shorter black hair, a white T-shirt and blue athletic shorts.  I almost couldn’t believe what he did next.  He actually put his left, neatly tied, all white K-Swiss on his right knee and pulled it off revealing his black no show sock with grey heals and toes.  I wasn’t at all expecting him to listen to what I said.  He then tossed it to one of his friends behind me and did the same with my shoe expect tossing it to someone behind him.  It was half a game of keep away and half about five of us just enjoying throwing the 2 shoes back and forth.   My fun ended however when one of them got the wild idea after grabbing my shoe to hold it out the window.  “Should I drop it?” he asked rhetorically.  I began to panic at the sight of this and somehow it made me speechless.  I wanted to tell him NO don’t, but for some reason the words wouldn’t come out.  All I could do is franticly watch my shoe dangle above oblivion.  Marcus stood up next to me and said with a calm tone “Don’t be like that dude, that ain’t cool.”  After a second or two of a stare down, the kid pulled my shoe back into the bus.  Marcus walked over grabbing my Nike and his own K-Swiss from the boy sitting at the very back.  He returned to his seat tossing me my shoe as he sat back down.  With a load stomp, he forced his black socked foot back into his tight K-Swiss.  “Thanks” I said sliding my right shoe back on.  He didn’t say anything but put his chin up giving me a quick nod of acknowledgement. 

In that moment, my respect for Marcus shot through the roof, standing up for me the way he did.  With a breath of relief, I slid my back to the wall of the bus and put my left foot up on the seat leaving my right on the floor.  The adrenaline of the situation started to subside and about a minute later everyone else began chatting.  I noticed Marcus however began looking at my left foot that was up on the bus seat.  He cocked head to the side before effortlessly pulling my left shoe off to examine it a little closer.  I just watched him as he did so without moving from my relaxed position.  After what he just did I knew he was simply curious.  He then looks me dead in the eyes and asks “Okay, why are there no laces in your shoes?”  “It’s a long story” I responded.   “They got taken out, my friend lost them, and well, I don’t have them anymore.”  “How do you keep your shoes on with them like this?” he asked.  I giggled and answered “I don’t.  They just fall off.  There’s not really anything I can do about it.”  To show him what I meant, I lifted my right leg up and laid it on the seat.  Giving my foot a shake caused my right shoe to fall off and hit the floor.  He laughs as he picks up my other shoe and says “geez, I hope you like running around in your socks.”  “I don’t mind,” I answered.  “Besides I can take my shoes off whenever I want with them like I that.”  “Well I can do that too, but that doesn’t mean I want to take the laces out of my shoes” he says as he playfully throws my shoes back over to me. “Yeah but you push your shoes off and force them back on.  I can just slide them off and on super easy” as I slid my right shoe on and off a few times to demonstrate.   He let out a small chuckle as he watched but said “I could never wear my shoes like that.”  “Ya don’t gotta make them laceless but you should try my wearing them looser sometime.  It’s so comfortable” I said attempting to persuade him.  He answered, “Nah, I got PE today and I don’t want them falling off.”  I countered, “Well ya know can always tie them before going to out to PE.”  Marcus was sitting closer to the aisle with is right leg underneath his left, left foot on the floor.  There was a brief second where our eyes locked on one another’s.    It was almost as if he put an idea into my head because what I did next I normally wouldn’t have had the courage to do.  I looked down at his left foot on the floor, reached over and pulled his leg up onto my knee.  When I did it, I thought he might struggle but he actually didn’t resist.  I put my hands on either side of his shoe, one on the top, one on the bottom.  With a bit of effort I forced his tight K-Swiss off again revealing his black no show sock with grey heals and toes.  He retracted socked foot to the floor as I began untying his shoe.   I worked on really loosening his laces which he went along with until I pulled them out of the top eyelet on either side.   “Not that much!” he giggled as he grabbed his shoe back and slid it on.  He then put his right foot up to the edge of my seat and looked at me expectantly.  I happily loosened his other shoe to mirror its mate.  Marcus then turned toward the front of the bus and looked down to examine my work.  He slid his socked feet in and out of his shoes a couple times exposing them to the cool air.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching him experience his loosened sneakers.  He looked back to me, and again, he didn’t say anything.  A smile was his only from of acknowledgement.

When we arrived at school I let Marcus exit his seat first.  Obviously, because I wanted to watch his socked feet slipping out of his now loose K-Swiss as he walked toward the front of the bus.  (About 7 out of 10 loose)  We then went our separate ways heading for our respective classrooms.    Unfortunately that was the only time I ever got to see Marcus with his shoes loose.   On our trip home that afternoon I saw his sneakers were neatly tied once again.  JJ on the other hand wore his shoes laceless for another 3 months until he got a new pair of shoes.  He had worn his shoes loose for so long that he said when he got his new pair, his dad no longer made him tie his shoes each morning.  JJ was so excited that he could now leave his shoes loose all the time that he wasn’t bothered that he had to wear laces again.  Eventually my mom did find out I had no laces in my shoes because she happened to be outside a few days later when I was walking home.  Like I thought, she got all upset and did proceed to ask me 20 questions as to how and why that happened.  She grabbed an old pair of my shoes from the garage that were too small for at that point and unlaced them.  I had to then put those laces into my Nikes which, luckily they were black like my old ones so they matched.  Because they were off of a smaller pair of shoes, when I laced them all the way to the top, the laces weren’t quite long enough so that I could tie them.   I told my mom I had to leave them untied but she responded with “find a way to tie them.”  What may have seemed a little harsh to me at the time, actually spurred me to start experimenting with how I tied and laced my shoes.  My Nikes had 6 eyelets total.  I pulled 2 of them out and tied my shoe like normal but they still felt tighter than I wanted them.  Let me try one more I thought, as I unlaced another.  That left my Nikes with 3 eyelets laced and 3 unlaced.  I tied my shoe like normal once again expect I didn’t pull the laces tight before tying the bow.  With this combination, even though they were technically tied, I Nikes were still about 7 out 10 Loose.  Loophole, I thought.   From that point on I always wore my shoes loose unless I was doing any formal athletics.  Whenever I would buy a new pair of shoes, I would make certain it was a pair I could make loose and look good while wearing them that way.   My experiences with Colin, Danny, Justin, JJ, Marcus and even my mom all pushed me to learn more about my shoeplay habit.  From Colin, I learned to love taking my shoes off in class and wherever I happened to be.  From Justin and Danny, I learned to love keeping an eye out for possible shoeplayers, and watching them play.  From JJ, I learned to love wearing my shoes loose and to enjoy shoeplaying to the max!  My experience with Marcus showed me that if I could teach potential shoeplays to wear their own shoes loose or looser, they might play even more than they already do or get them to start.   And like I said, that situation with my mom spurred me to start experimenting with how I tied and laced my shoes.   Every person contributed a piece and I’m thankful for each one.  I used all I learned from these experiences to create many new shoeplayers and had a ton of fun with many well established ones.  Don’t forget to wear your shoes loose and always shoeplay! 

A Shoeplay Story Part 2 – Who Needs Laces

Author – Shoelessguy7

It began like any other Monday; I got there first and waited for JJ to arrive.  I was well into my morning assignment when he came in so I didn’t watch him approach his desk.  I heard it first, a “clop, whop, flop” sound of some really loose shoes.  My first thought was maybe JJ had simply made his shoes loose before coming in that morning but I couldn’t have been more wrong.  JJ sat down and began to get his stuff situated.  I peeked under his desk to see his Adidas Superstars,  with no shoelaces in them?!  “Whoa, what happened to your laces” I asked?  He answered “I had my shoes really untied this weekend while riding my bike with my bro, and my laces got stuck in the bike chain.  They got all messed up so my bro just completely took ‘em out for me.  I don’t mind at all though because I don’t have to worry about laces now.”  His shoes couldn’t get any looser.  (10 out of 10 Loose) As he “clopped” over to sharpen his pencil I watched the bottom of his shoes stay on the ground while his socked heals raised all the way up out of his shoes before he took each step.  With no laces, JJ took his shoes off more and more.  During class, he got up to get a drink at the back of the classroom.  I noticed it was unusually quiet when he did, so I peered under his desk to see his Adidas on the floor.  A few of the other students noticed as he walked back to his desk in his white socked feet.  I giggled and said quietly “no shoes.”  He smiled as he sat down and held up his socked feet to show me his shoeless state.  I slipped my own loose shoes off too and held my socked feet up next to his.  “Shoes off” he said as we gave each other a silent high five. 

No matter what JJ did, he couldn’t keep his shoes on.  He constantly was running right out of them and flicking them off his feet while we were at recess that day.  You would think that most people would absolutely hate having no laces in their shoes, but not JJ.  I was almost mesmerized by how much he immensely enjoyed it.  I couldn’t help but try to flick my own loose shoes off as much as he did.  On Tuesday we both dared each other to see how far we could walk away from our shoes.  JJ’s got up and walked around the classroom without his shoes, then so did I.  Midmorning our teacher asked for some volunteers to return some books to the Library.  JJ and I raised our hands and she called us up to collect the books.  We walked up to her desk shoeless as she handed us around 8 books each to carry.  JJ proceeded towards the door when my stomach had a sinking feeling.  We would be leaving the classroom and walking down 3 corridors before reaching the Library.  JJ turned around and must have seen the look on my face because he piped up, whispering “I dare you!”  My desk was behind me at this point so it would have looked odd to go back to retrieve my shoes now.  With 1,000 butterflies in my stomach, we exited our classroom heading toward the library in our white socked feet. I prayed the hallways would be empty and luckily they were.  No one was nearby upon us entering the Library either so we simply put the books on the Librarian’s return desk and walked back to class.  On our way, my nervousness began to subside so we had some fun running and sliding down the hallways in our socks.  Later we had the idea of going to Art class which was across the school without our shoes.  But neither of us were quite brave enough for that challenge and decided against it.    Although I did enjoy walking behind JJ to Art class watching his laceless Adidas flopping off his feet the entire way there.  It was almost if he could walk right of them at any moment.  The Art classroom had higher tables and stools for students to sit in rather than desks and chairs.  I noticed JJ dangling his Adidas for a second before letting them drop to the floor.  I smiled as I then did the same with my own Nikes.  The noise however attracted the attention of the boy sitting across for JJ.  The boy, Chris, used his feet to slide JJ’s Adidas to the table behind him, and across from us.  JJ noticed however and got upset.  After hearing that commotion, the Art teacher approached our table.  She scolded Chris for what he had done but also scolded JJ for having his shoes off.  “Collect your shoes” she ordered.  Then she turned and got after me as well after noticing I had my shoes off also.  When she walked away I shot Chris an annoyed look and said “That was your fault so thanks a lot”!  “You guys should keep your shoes on” he sneered.  “We can take them off if we want to” I retorted.   All of us at our table were pretty irritated as the class ended.

I completed my morning assignment the next day just as JJ was entering the classroom.  His loose shoes noise notified me of his presence and reminded me that I hadn’t untied my own shoes yet.  He just sat down to begin his work as I bent down to untie my shoes.  In the process, I looked over at JJ’s Adidas and began to observe them a little more closely. With no laces in his shoes, his tongues hang all the way forward almost touching the ground.  As he moved his legs back and forth, his socked feet popped right out of his shoes.  For some reason, I couldn’t pull my eyes away.  JJ propped his socked feet on the backs of his shoes making them stand straight up and down.  I watched him play with his shoes for about a minute until his left shoe fell pretty close to me.  Suddenly an uncontrollable idea leaped into my head.  I had to know what it felt like to wear those laceless shoes and I knew I wanted to try them on.  I stealthily, but slowly pulled JJ’s left shoe off so to alarm him.  He looked at me with a smirk and asked “what are doing down there”?  “I want to try your shoes on” I answered.  He shrugged and slid his right shoe over to me.  I excitedly shoved my own shoes off and slipped his on.  Luckily we wore the same size so it was a perfect fit.  JJ slid my Nikes on and began raking at the laces making them even looser than I usually did.  Now I wore my Nikes really loose (8 out of 10 Loose) but that feeling was nothing like this.  All I had to do was slide my legs back and my socked feet came almost all the way out of JJ’s Adidas.  No matter which way I shuffled my legs about, the Adidas practically fell off every time.  The more I played with them the more excited I became and decided to get up and walk around.  It took me a second to get used to wearing in them.  If I went too fast I would have walked right out of them!  It’s no wonder JJ has his shoes off as often as he does I thought!  It feels like having your shoes on but having them off at the same time, all the time.  I finally made my way back to my desk.  “These are awesome” I complimented.  “I know.  I love them without the laces.” he responded.  “Can I wear them for the day?” I asked.  “Are you sure you can handle it?  We have PE today and we’re playing kick ball” he reminded me.  I remember the last time we played kick ball I tied my shoes for the game. There’s no way that would be possible wearing JJ’s Adidas.  “Sure, it’ll be fun!” I said.

Now one thing I learned very quickly when wearing your shoes with no laces.  They’re going to come off!  So it’s pointless to fight against it.  Just let it happen, and enjoy it.  On the way out to PE, while messing around, I walked out of one his shoes, twice. JJ laughed both times I lost his shoe.  It looks like he was having as much fun watching me wear his shoes as I was wearing them.   I was a little nervous as we prepared to play kick ball.  But remembering my lesson, I pushed passed it as I lined up.   Once the pitcher was ready, he rolled the ball toward me.  I waited until it got almost all the way to me so I didn’t have to take a step forward to kick it.  Even so I gave the ball a nice thud and of course my shoe followed it down the field.  The other shoe didn’t even make it one step.  I planted my socked foot to the ground to make a sprint to first base and as expected, when I lifted my other foot off the ground, it came right out of the laceless shoe.  I made a mad dash to first and hopped on the base in my socks.  Some of the other kids grabbed and threw my shoes over to me, but I knew there was no way I could keep them on so I just held on to them.  JJ was up next and he followed suit.   After making his kick I watched my black Nike go flying down the field.  He made it a few steps in his other shoe but eventually came out of it while sprinting to first.  Since it happened twice in a row the other kids didn’t bother giving my shoes back to JJ.  They left them where they lied.  After making it to home we collected our shoes and slid them on pretty pleased because our team had won the first round.  The second time we were up at bat was pretty much a repeat of the first.  When that round was over one of the boys on our team asked us “why don’t you guys just leave your shoes off?” JJ and I looked at each other, shrugged, and with a kick, we flicked our shoes over to the sideline.  Seeing us shoeless, one of the other boys on our team with short blond hair walked over to our shoes and pulled his own off revealing his white socks with solid gray bottoms.  I walked over to him and high fived him saying “shoes off” as he shot me a smile.  Our game was being played on the field furthest from the coaches, but even still I was surprised none of them ever came over to our field to tell us to put our shoes on like they did in the past.  That made me quite happy as the three of us got to finish the game in our socks.  

Later out at recess JJ and I decided to wander over to the swings.  We were chatting as we sat down so I wasn’t paying close attention.  When I pushed off to begin swinging, I pushed right out of his shoes.  Swinging my legs back and forth I said “Ahh, my shoes!”  JJ found this hysterical and began flailing his legs about letting my shoes fly off his feet.  We enjoyed the relaxing feeling of swinging in our socks for a while but before recess was complete JJ had to go in and use the bathroom.  He hadn’t yet returned when it was time for our class to go in but I figured he’d make his way back on his own.  He walked into the classroom a few minutes after everyone else, but something was different.  As I watched him approach his desk, I noticed the tongues on my Nikes were hanging all the way forward just about touching the ground and the laces were nowhere to be seen.  At that moment my face must have turned white as a ghost but I didn’t say anything.  All I could think about however, is what my party pooper mother would say if she saw my shoes that way.  I’m sure she’d ask 18,000 questions as to why, and then I would get in trouble.  I knew I had to ask JJ but couldn’t find the words.  Eventually he got up to get a drink at the back of the classroom.  This is my chance, I thought as he made his way back.  I intently stared at my Nikes flopping off his feet as he sat down making sure he realized I noticed them.  I finally plucked up the courage to ask “Hey, what happened to my laces?”  “Oh, the laces were kind of getting annoying dragging and whacking back and forth so I took them out” he responded.  I wasn’t too surprised at his answer.  After all, he had been wearing his shoes laceless for almost a week now and it must have felt weird all the sudden having laces again.  I piped up saying “Oh, ok, but where are they?”  He reached into his left pocket, then his right.  With a look of worry and embarrassment he answered “umm, I think I dropped them somewhere.”  “Nooo, my mom’s gonna kill me” I whispered to him.  “I’m sorry” JJ whispered back.  “Let me see them” I said.  We swapped our shoes back and slipped them on.  I stared down at my Nikes for what seemed like 10 minutes thinking off and on about what I could say to my mom.  Then I looked over to see JJ playing with his shoes and I couldn’t help but smile.  My eyes trailed back to my Nikes and I began to examine them more closely.  No laces in them meant the tongue was hanging forward almost touching the ground just like JJ’s Adidas.  I moved my legs back making them slip right off my socked feet.  I shuffled left, shuffled right, and began to play around with them just like I done with JJ’s shoes that morning.  Looking back and forth between JJ’s shoeplay and my own, my fear and nervousness slowly started to subside.   All the sudden I realized I had gotten what I wanted earlier; to wear my shoes with no laces, but did I want to keep them that way?  Thinking back on all the fun JJ has had with his laceless shoes and the exciting day I’ve had wearing them, made me completely forget the fear of what my mom would say and think.  My confidence started growing more and more as I thought to myself, I’m going to wear my shoes loose because I want them that way, and nobody is going to tell me different!  A grin began to creep across my face.  JJ looked over to me again with a sad I’m sorry expression but it disappeared after seeing my smile.  I shuffled my legs around again letting my now laceless Nikes slip and slide right off my socked feet.   Almost with a laugh, I whispered to JJ, “oh my gosh. This feels so awesome!  I never have to tie my shoes again!”   “I told you didn’t I?  Who needs laces!” he answered.  

A Shoeplay Story Part 1 – A New friend to Teach Me

Author – Shoelessguy7

This is a story of a couple of my experiences through school. These are some of the events that got me started on the path to love shoeplaying and wearing my shoes loose. In grade school, one year my best friend Colin got me to enjoy taking my shoes off in class. One of the things we learned together was the first time our shoes came untied throughout the day, we would simply leave them that way. Not because we didn’t know how to tie my shoes, but because we like having them untied. Obviously it made it so much easier to slip our shoes off and play with them. At one point my father got a new job so we had to move to a nearby city and I had to say good-bye to my best friend. Changing schools and moving to a new place is always tough, but the one lucky thing for me was it wasn’t during the school year. It was over summer so at least I got to start in a new place at the start of the school year. However, this story begins one year after I moved.

The new school year had just begun. I’ve been here for one whole year and made a few friends but none that shoeplayed like my best friend Colin had. In fact, ever since I got to this new school, I really hadn’t seen anyone, boys or girls, play with their shoes. I was beginning to get discouraged, perhaps even thinking about giving up shoeplaying myself. However, fate had other ideas for me. I was so happy to find 2 boys in my class this year that did occasionally play with their shoes like I did. One boy’s name was Danny. He was fairly short with a thin build and always had short blond hair. Usually he wore some type of running shoes that were always tightly tied. Even so, sometimes he decided to force his tight shoes off and play with them during class which I always enjoyed watching. The other boy’s name was Justin. He was a little taller than Danny with mid length, straight black hair. When it came to Justin’s sneakers, he was a little more like me. Once his shoes came untied he rarely ever tied them again. He always wore his favorite white and blue Nike high tops. One morning I noticed Justin walk into class already having both his shoes untied. As he moved about the classroom he didn’t look like he had any intention of tying his Nikes. I giggled a bit seeing his laces trailing behind him and decided that I wanted to copy him for the day. I immediately reached down to untie my own Nike high tops except mine were black and white. Throughout the morning we went to PE and by that time were being dismissed for lunch. I noticed our shoes were starting to get pretty loose, (Around 6 out 10 Loose) and I got right behind Justin as we headed out the door. I looked down at his untied Nikes, and then to my own. Our shoes were beginning to slide off our heels a bit as we walked to the cafeteria making the occasional “clop, whop, thop” sounds as we went. One thing I liked about my new school better was here, lunch was a period. After we finished eating we were allowed to go out to the recess field. After exiting the lunchroom, Justin and I joined a whole group starting up a big game of tag. We ran up, down, and around the field getting hot and sweaty for at least 10 minutes. This of course had made our Nikes even looser than they already were. At that point, neither of us had our laces trialing any more. They were threatening to come out of the top eyelet of our sneakers. (Around 7 out of 10 Loose) Once the game concluded Justin headed over to the swings for our final remaining minutes of recess. I followed after him and took the seat to his left. He was already swinging pretty high when I got started. I looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of a white and blue Nike go flying 10 yards down the field. Justin slowed his pace a bit then jumped off the swing to go collect his sneaker. He slid his shoe back on and began to walk back towards the swings as I followed suit. I gave a great kick and sent my black and white Nike flying even further than Justin’s had gone. Justin laughed seeing my soaring sneaker and waited for me to retrieve my shoe before he started swinging again. When I sat back down Justin said “let’s see who can fling their shoe the farthest.” “Alright” I answered. We started swinging higher and higher while trying to keep our swings in sync. 3, 2, 1 we both flicked our shoes as far as we could with Justin’s landing a little further than mine. We hopped off the swings to collect our shoes and wanted to go again but it was time to head back to class. Luckily at the beginning of the year, I sat behind Justin so I got to watch him shoeplay many times throughout class. Occasionally he would turn around to see if I had my shoes off too and he would give me a grin when I did. At the end of the 1st quarter of the year, we welcomed a new student to our class whose name was JJ. He was about the same height as Justin but with very short, almost crew cut, black hair. He was sporting some Adidas Superstars and I immediately noticed he wore them untied and really loose. Unfortunately he was seated at the far end of the classroom so I couldn’t tell if he played with his shoes.

At the start of the 2nd quarter my teacher moved our desks. I wasn’t too happy to find out that I now sat in the 2nd row towards the left front of the classroom while Justin sat in the back row on the far right. I knew I wouldn’t be able to watch him shoeplay anymore and he couldn’t see me either. Danny also wasn’t in view as he now sat in the 1st row on the far right. Although I did perk up when saw JJ enter the classroom and our teacher assigned him the seat to my right. Like an emotional roller coaster though, my heart sank when I look down to see his Adidas Superstars were neatly tied tight on his feet. After hanging his backpack on his chair, he sat down at his desk. To my surprise, I turned just in time to see him pull his foot up to his chair, and begin untying his shoe. He wasn’t just untying them either. He really went to town loosening up his sneakers. When he was done, he immediately slid his white socked feet half out of his Superstars. My heart began to beat faster in shock. I almost didn’t believe my eyes but when I looked again he was still playing with his shoes. I was a little ashamed that my Nikes were still tightly tied to my feet. I felt like untying my them but by then our lesson had started and with a work sheet heading our way, I forgot about it at the time. We didn’t have PE that day so my shoes didn’t come untied until after lunch, but even so they were still pretty tight and tough to get off and on. As we came back from recess I walked behind JJ. His shoes were now very loose. (8 out of 10 Loose) So much so that they slid a third of way off his feet every step he took making a clucking sound as we walked down the hallway. I had never worn my shoes that loose before and it never had accrued to me to try that. This thought stayed in my head until the end of the day as I watched JJ shoeplay while doing a little of my own.

The next day I was like the 3rd student to enter the classroom so it was nice and quiet while I started my morning assignment. When I saw JJ come in, I noticed his Adidas were again neatly tied tight to his feet. However, after getting his books situated, he pulled his right sneaker up onto his seat and began loosening it. He did the same with the other, and once he was done, started playing with his shoes just like yesterday. I wanting to be able to do the same but I wasn’t quite sure how to make my Nikes that loose. None the less I reached down to untied my shoes and pushed them off to play alongside him. After a while it was time for us to go to PE. I followed JJ out to the Soccer field watching his shoes slipping off his feet the whole way there. Once the teams were picked (I made sure I was on JJ’s of course) the game began. The ball came over toward me and I gave it a hard thud down the field. One of our opponents lobbed the ball into the air and it bounced down near JJ. As he gave the ball a kick, I saw his black and white Adidas Superstar following the ball flying down the field. I couldn’t help grin as I watched him run over to his sneaker and slide his white socked foot back into his shoe. We both ran back to our side of the field to defend the goal when one of our opponents came rushing toward us. The boy pushed past me then JJ but JJ didn’t want to let him go and chased after him. As he did, JJ ran right out of his sneakers and chased after the boy in his white socked feet. Some of the kids laughed and so did I seeing that display. Despite JJ’s effort, the boy scored a goal. As we walked back to center field, JJ went right past his shoes and continued playing the game in his socks. Even though I was scared to, I knew I absolutely wanted to do that too! So I jogged over to JJ’s Adidas and pushed off my black Nikes leaving them right next to his shoes. It was a blast running up and down the field in my socks. Some of the other boys must have thought so too because Justin and two boys from the other team also took their shoes off and played the game in socks. After a while though, one of the PE coaches came over and told us all to “put your shoes on”. We all did but JJ’s shoes didn’t stay on for very long. Every time he kicked the ball his shoe went flying off. After finishing the game with my shoes untied, they were starting to get pretty loose (7 out of 10 Loose) but nowhere near as loose as JJ’s. His shoes were almost half way unlaced as we walked back to class. (About 9 out of 10 Loose) Later, when we went out to recess, I wasn’t sure why but the recess monitor made JJ sit out. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to hanging out him. I also noticed that he looked quite irritated and his shoes were tightly tied once again. His mood remained that way for the rest of the day.

The next morning he was in better spirits. When he came in, JJ went over to turn in his homework while I walked over to sharpen my pencil. On the way back I noticed that my right shoe was untied already and was thinking I might tie it this early in the morning. We sat down at about the same time, faced each other, and we both pulled a foot up onto our seats. I grabbed my shoe laces readying to tie them when my eyes wandered over to see JJ beginning to untie and loosen his. Memories started flowing back of what happened yesterday at PE and I couldn’t help but watch what he doing. He finished working on his first shoe and started the second, when he glanced up to see me looking at him. “What” he asked? I snapped out of it and thought, it’s now or never so I asked, “why are you untying your shoes.” “Because I like wearing them loose and untied” he answered, “So I can slide them off like this” as he pointed to his socked feet playing with his shoes. “I do that a lot too, but I’ve never had my shoes that loose before” I said. “You gotta try it. It’s fun” he said with a smile. He reached over and started raking at my laces pulling them out of the first eyelet and spreading them out. I was trembling out of nervousness but I had no intention of stopping him. I half lifted up my other foot and he half made a grab for it and began doing the same to that one. When he finished I put my feet on the floor and began shuffling them about. I enjoyed the sensation of how easily they slid on and off my white socked feet. “Wow” I exclaimed. “See, it’s great isn’t it” he said. “Yeah, how did you learn how to do this” I asked? “My big brother taught me” he answered. As he explained how his older brother wore his shoes really loose as well. His dad however always made him tie shoes before leaving for school. So, JJ simply started untying and loosening them when he got there. “I know how to do it but hate tying my shoes. And I especially hate it when people tell me to tie my shoes! That’s what happened yesterday and the lunch teacher got mad when I wouldn’t tie ‘em.” “Ohh, that’s what happened.” I realized. As class began I couldn’t help but watch both of our socked feet playing with our shoes. JJ later showed me how to loosen my shoes so I could do it myself. Every morning we would wait for each other to arrive in class and we would untie our shoes together. This became like a ritual for us, but a few weeks later, something changed.

The way out

Author – Irsocks

The last thing Logan remembered was picking the lock and sneaking into the house with the door slamming shut behind him. Now he was upstairs in one of the rooms on the bed. He didn’t know how he had gotten up there. He noticed that someone had removed his black, white, and blue Vans. He could see his Vans white socks with blue heels and toes. He wiggled his toes just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. He looked over the side of the bed and saw his shoes next to each other on the floor.

After he looked around to make sure he was alone, he quickly jumped out of the bed and slipped on his shoes. He was about to head for the door when he noticed a pair of blue and white Adidas running shoes.

He eased over to them. One was on it’s side. He could see that they were his size. He slipped his Vans off and slipped them on. They were a perfect fit. He thought to himself that he could not pass up this opportunity to get a free pair of sneakers.

After scooping up his shoes, Logan eased to the door and looked out into the hallway. There seemed to be no one around. He went into the other rooms to see if there were other things he could take. All the other rooms were empty. The only things in the house were him, the sneakers, and the bed which was strange to him. He figured the Adidas sneakers were worth breaking into the house. He made his way to the door only to find it locked. He went to the back door only to find it locked as well. The windows were bolted down from the inside.
Logan was about to panic but said to himself that there had to be a way out. He searched the rooms again only to find nothing he could use to escape. There had to be a way out he thought. He went back to the door and tried it again hoping it would open. No luck. There were no locks to pick and nothing to break the glass. He looked down at the sneakers and thought that they were not worth getting trapped inside the house.
Logan started pacing the floor when something caught his eye on the wall. There was a sign next to the door that he had not noticed before. He did not care that it had magically appeared out of nowhere. He just wanted out, and the sign seemed to provide a way out. It read, The Way Out: Leave in order to leave. Logan thought to himself that makes no sense at all. He started to get mad when he realized he had to figure out the meaning. He wasn’t any good at solving things.
He was about to scream when he noticed that there were two indentions in the floor next to the wall near the door. As he got closer he realized that they looked like shoe prints big enough for a pair of shoes. He stepped into the first ones. He heard a bolt give way as something clamped onto the sides of the sneakers. He could not get his feet loose without leaving the sneakers behind. He didn’t want them anymore if he could get out of the house. He pulled his sock feet out of the sneakers.

He put his shoes on and walked over to the door and tried to open it. It was still locked. His joy turned to sorrow when he realized the purpose of the second set of indentions on the floor. Now he realized what the sign meant next to the door. He not only had to leave the Adidas sneakers there; he also had to leave his sneakers as well. He tried the door again trying with all his might to pull it open. No luck. He looked down at his sneakers and almost cried.

Logan walked over to the indention and slowly stood on it hoping that he did not have to leave his Vans behind. When he stepped onto the indention another bolt gave way and the door opened. He thought he could pull his feet away quickly and run for the door. That thought faded when he felt something clamp onto his sneakers. He tried to pull his feet free with his sneakers, but he could not. He pulled his feet free looking down at his sneakers and finally at his sock feet.
He tried pulling his sneakers free, but they would not budge. He slowly walked over to the opened door and looked back sadly at his sneakers. He walked out of the house in his sock feet defeated. The door slammed shut behind him. Logan noticed a sign on the outside of the door that read, Thank you for the sneakers.

Entertainment at the bus stop

Author – Leftshoeloss

Last summer, I saw a 25-year-old guy at the bus stop staring very intently at my sneakers and white socks, so I decided to leave my one shoe unattended to see if he stole it or not. I took off my sneaker and then turned away from it, pretending to be on the phone. A minute later, a bus arrived and he instantly grabbed my sneaker and ran into it, leaving it in one shoe and white socks, if you want to get my photos in one sneaker, then throw off your mail

Drunk dare

Author – Bill

This happened before current restrictions. 6 of us had been out for a drink or few and were returning home at about 2 am, Steve decided it wasn’t time to end the night so it was round to his flat for a few last drinks. Steve lives in a large block of flats on the third of 8 floors and as we got to his flat there was a metal door in the wall and I asked him what that did, he explained it was a rubbish chute and it went all the way from the top floor to the basement where the rubbish went directly into huge wheelie bins, in fact there were 8 chutes and 8 wheelie bins. We went back to his and had a couple more beers but the seeds of a silly idea had been sown. How long I asked does it take for the rubbish to take to fall to the bottom, Steve said it was fairly quick, not as quick as we are I am sure. Right here is the dare go to the top floor pick a rubbish chute all throw our trainers down the chute then race to the basement to get our trainers back – come on – who is up for it, yes said one of the lads, Ben, but only if we use different chutes so it a real race. Our fate was decided – We took our trainers off and split into 3 teams based on the colours of our socks, white team, grey team and blue team, we ran up to the top floor in our socks checked our phones to compare times and at 2-30 our trainers went down our chosen chute, we then ran down our nearest stair well in our socks and it was a very long way we all landed at the basement at slightly different times, but all out of breath and excited to see whose trainers had landed first, of course, first we has to find them. We checked all 8 huge wheelie bins and thinking our trainers must be on top we were somewhat surprised to see none had yet landed. Well that’s great we had beaten the chutes all we had to now was wait. Suddenly in the corner was a loud clattering, we rushed over to find some trainers had fallen into the big bin, They were from team Ben the blue sock team his two white Reebok trainers and one of his team mates red Air Max, Ben fished them out with a stick not wanting to climb into the filthy bin. They put them on but Aaron sadly had on one red Air max and one pale blue sock still that’s one trainer more than the rest of us. We waited around for a while but there was no more clattering, guess four of us were going home in socks, we raced back up to the top floor and checked each of the chutes we had used using torches on our mobiles, floor by floor all the way down to the bottom. Steve did not have far to go and said he would keep an eye on the basement in the hope that other people’s rubbish knocked the trainers down. The night was over and we all went our individual way home. My own route, in my pale grey Adidas socks, took me through the town to my home. Several people asked why I was in my socks and I told them I had lost my trainers in a bet.

Mall mugging

Author – Shoelover

One day I was walking around a shoe aisle at Macy’s when I came across a bunch of nike sneakers I liked. That day I wore my trusty pair of white air force 1s with a black swoosh. I wore a champion hoodie and fresh pair of jeans and white socks that I happened to wear for a second day in a row😅. Anyway I walk around the aisles to look at a new pair of nikes when I felt someone was following me but it’s the mall so it’s expected that someone is near you looking at shoes too. I found a pair of Nike air max 90s that I liked a lot so I kicked my sneakers off and I walked over in my white socks with air Max’s in my hand to try them on. I still had an eye on my nike air forces just in case anyone had sticky fingers. There was this middle aged man pacing around back and forth and was by my sneakers and walked passed me. I looked at what he was wearing and he had a hoodie with jeans and a beat up pair of nikes on. I get up and look for another pair of shoes so I walk around in my socks a little farther away from my sneakers. I turn back to the aisle where I left my air forces a d they were gone!! I got red and embarrassed just knowing that someone stole my sneakers. I asked if I could pay for a new pair of Nike air max. They said they can’t sell sneakers to someone who didn’t wear shoes. I had to call an Uber and that’s where things got worse. Email me at shoelover93095@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to meet me at a mall in New york

The stranger – pt4

Author – Nike Mike

‘Where’s our shoes Jimmy?’ I asked. He sat down on the sofa placing his dirty black socked feet on my coffee table and began explaining.
‘Your shoe buddy appeared, he’d been watching us and said he will be keeping your old Nikes because you wore shoes tonight, I threatened to punch him if he doesn’t return them. I informed him that I made you ignore his silly rules, which sucked, and wear some shoes. He said I didn’t scare him but if you where that desperate for your trainers you must follow his silly rules by returning shoeless tomorrow night and he is taking your new Nikes for breaking those silly rules’.
‘So you let him take my new trainers’ I said.
‘Well you wanted your old pair back’ replied Jimmy
Pretending to want my old pair had just cost me my new Nikes which I now desperately wanted back.
‘So where are my old Nikes and where are your trainers’ I asked.
Jimmy explained as he stared at his shoeless feet.
‘He put your new Nikes into his rucksack then he wanted my shoes, I laughed telling him I wasn’t getting involved in his silly games. He said that because I’d given him your trainers I had by default followed the rules. Therefore I was involved and already playing his silly game. Apparently taking my trainers would enforce a sock walk of shame as punishment for making you break the rules.
I told him he was crazy and I wasn’t giving him my only pair of shoes. He began to leave telling me I had cost you your old and new trainers because I wouldn’t follow the rules. I told him I needed my shoes to catch a train home tomorrow. He said he would liked to have watched me catch a train in my socks. I didn’t want you to lose your Nikes so I relented as long he promised to return yours and my trainers tomorrow night. He agreed but warned that if he catches either of us wearing shoes we would not get our trainers back.
He said he liked the colour of my New Balance trainers, blue with red H’s, as he watched me take them off, Telling me it’s unfortunate they weren’t his size. I thrust them into his chest and reminded him they where still mine and to keep his grubby little feet out of them. He cycled off, one hand on the handle bars the other carrying my trainers.
It was getting dark and the park keeper told me to leave, he followed me out, locking the gate whilst staring at my socked feet. Embarrassed, I decided to come straight back here. So here I am without shoes, looks like I’m staying’, he said.
I appreciated Jimmy’s efforts. I just wished I had seen him reluctantly giving his trainers to a stranger and then being escorted out of the park in his socks.
I thanked him, allowing him to sleep on my sofa for a few nights was the least I could do and I still had the pleasure of a forced sock walk with him tomorrow night.

Unwittingly mugged

Author – Andy

Years ago I bought an old car after passing my driving test, I was asked to take my mums friend to the railway station. Inexperienced it would be a challenge to drive into the city.
Mum’s friend gave me £50 for petrol ‘Thanks’ I said, it was way too much but quickly put it in my wallet anyway. I quickly became lost in the city centre. I tried to get my bearings whilst stopped at a junction, the lights went to green, I moved forward quicker than the car in front and I rear ended him. He hand signalled for me to follow him to a quieter street. Fortunately it was just damaged paintwork, ‘No need to involve the insurance company’ he said, I agreed as my new driver policy was already expensive. He said £300 should cover it, I gulped at the price but it was still lower than my insurance excess. I pulled out the £50 from my wallet, I said I’ll get the rest to you later. He said he didn’t trust strangers and needed it now or we will have to involve the insurers. I offered him my £80 watch. ‘Still not enough’ he said. I gave him my now empty leather wallet and offered my leather belt too. ‘OK take off the belt and those sunglasses too’. I gave him my Ray-Bans and removed my belt. I was pleased, even cheaper than paying cash I thought as he placed my stuff in the boot of his car. He then looked down at my feet ‘Shoes’ he said. ‘What about them’ I said. He claimed I’d given him only half the cost so far, my shoes still wouldn’t cover the rest but he was prepared to accept the loss. ‘It’s either your shoes or no deal’ he said as I stared down at my feet. ‘I’m doing you a big favour here by not involving the insurance people so just give me your trainers and we can be done here’.
He was probably right, giving him my trainers was still the cheaper option, I kicked off my brand new white Reebok classics and thanked him for his generosity of accepting my shoes instead of cash, he picked them up and inspected them, he even sniffed them to check their newness. He put them in his car boot and lcoked it. As he got in his car I ran up to his door, my white socks sticking to the warm tarmac and asked him for directions to the motorway. I waved him goodbye thanking him as I stood in the street in my loose jeans with empty pockets and shoeless feet.
At home I didn’t tell my dad what happened but asked him how much it would cost to remove scratches from car paintwork. About £50 he said. I felt like I’d been robbed in broad daylight and I had quite happily allowed it. I’d even thanked the guy for taking my trainers. What a young naive lad I was back then.