Guess what happened to me yesterday: late in the afternoon I was running to the pub to meet a couple of friends for a swift one when I glimpsed a young woman walking towards me. She had a smart coat on but no shoes! Sadly, she wasn´t completely barefoot but looking at her filthy tights was quite a treat too. I should also say that we´ve already had some snow here and that the average afternoon temperature has dropped considerably (now it is 2-4 °C). The lady didn´t seem to be struggling at all and happily walked past me towards the metro station.

She was with a dude who can´t have been one us because he clearly didn´t give a damn about her situation. I, on the other hand, couldn´t help it, changed my priorities and began to follow them. She bought a ticket, went to the escalator and then waited on the crowded platform for her train. At that time she finally showed some discomfort: she kept flexing her toes and time to time tried to stand on her heels to avoid the contact with the freezing floor.

Then inside the metro carriage she remained standing, which allowed me to look at the tops of her feet more closely. She had her toe nails painted light blue and looked fantastic.

I also noticed that she had her pumps in her coat pockets. At that moment I approached her and offered her a few pieces of sticking plaster from my emergency first aid kit where I keep painkillers and so on. While that bloke looked as if he had no clue what I was talking about, she was absolutely adorable. She kept thanking me and explained that she was an international student who had just been at some function organised by her university. She then went on to say that her new shoes were killing her and that she chose to be barefoot so as not to damage her feet. She refused my help though because as she put it she was going straight home to get changed which wouldn´t take her more than a couple of minutes and that she was fine.

I arrived late at the pub but it was worth it!

What about you? Any similar stories to share?

On second thought, I must add that thanks to this woman, 2018 has been the longest year in terms of sightings. I glimpsed the first girl in the middle of March (yes, she was sporting minimalist sandals but in similarly cold weather) who was followed by a properly barefoot one at the beginning of April. In other words, there has been around eight fruitful months so far!

Sounds great, thanks for sharing that with us.
I haven't had any spectacular sightings in really cold weather (at the moment it is around 3-5 degrees Celcius during the day) but I did see a tall hippie-woman in minimilistic leather sandas last week on a local flea-market, which I thought was quite cool. I could imagine that she is a regular hardcore barefooter in warmer weather but I didn't get the chance to speak to her. Hopefully I will see her again some time.

2018 was also one of the best year's I've ever experienced with barefoot sightings. I think my earliest one was also in March and the latest one in October.

-Hal-

Thanks for your reaction, Hal. Glad that your 2018 was also full of barefoot beauties!

As for sightings, I´ve learnt that the best thing to do is to visit vegan food festivals. There, you are bound to come across tons of barefoot vendors as well as visitors.

^ Totally agree. I'm a vegan myself and have always seen barefoot women walking around at those festival

-Hal-

PS. And also anything concerning enviromental issues (like rallies/demonstrations) in spring/summer.
My girlfriend and I went to a huge enviromental festival/demonstrations in early October and there were probably a couple of hundred (thousand?) barefoot hippies. I actually hadn't expected this around that time of year and it was pure luck to see so many -- the weather on that day had been cold in the morning (and people came with warm shoes) and then it turned super hot around noon, so most people removed their shoes & socks.

Wow! It must have been quite a sight! Hope that your girlfriend followed their example and walked barefoot too.

Speaking of rallies, what happened in Paris yesterday could have yielded some barefoot women as well. By the way, any witness in here who´d be able to elaborate?

Hal, I have a question: Is your girlfriend a barefooter? What does she think about your fascination with dirty, bare feet?

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Those 'yellow-jacket' protesters who violently clashed with the police in Paris yesterday?

@Daniellowl: No, my gf isn't a barefooter like some of my hardcore models (who will walk barefoot 24/7 with super dirty-black soles) but she sometimes walks around barefoot outdoors in public (and will almost always do it if I ask her to). We've gone on day trips to other cities and she walked barefoot the entire day. She's definitely good at it and she has really pretty feet but she's not a true 100% barefooter.

Yeah, a silly joke. If there are anti-riot police around and if you are unfortunate enough to have mingled with them, you might end up running for it and loosing your shoes along the way.

^ Haha, okay. I was at first surprised by what you wrote because yesterday I read that most of the protesters definitely weren't open-minded barefoot hippie women (more the exact opposite -- aparently quite a few far-right thugs are among the protesters).

Yeah, nonviolent demonstrations like the hanfparade and hanfwandertag marijuana legalization rallies are great for spotting barefoot girls with filthy feet from walking along the dirty streets of Berlin and Vienna. Here in the USA, the best sightings of filthy bare feet I ever had were at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations back in 2011 and 2012.

Hal, what are the names of some of the pro-environment rallies you are talking about? I'd love to try to find photos and videos from them on Youtube or Instagram or Facebook to see if I can find some barefoot hippie girls.

The demonstration we went to was to save the HAMBACHER FORST, which is an old forest that is endangered to be torn down to mine coal. There were about 50.000 people at the demonstration (which was more like an open-air festival -- it was next to the forest).

The last decades I was also often at ANTI AKW demonstrations (anti nuclear protests) and there were always loads of barefoot women and the rallies were sometimes huge as well.

Other protests were pretty small and I guess there won't be any material online.

Good luck!

I also cannot remember that I have ever encountered a barefoot girl in really cold weather. Once I saw an elderly lady (guess she must have been around 60) in some quite "hippie"/"alternative" outfit waiting for a train in cold winter weather (on a snow day) completely barefoot, obviously not carrying shoes. Also I once met up with a woman who lived completly barefoot for several years. We had some conversation on facebook and as we lived close, we once met up for a coffe and some sightseeing in a close city. It was on a very cold and snowy frost day, but that did not bother any of us.

However, I know of 3 men in my neighbourhood that stay barefoot all year round and from time-to-time I encounter them on the steet.

A young girl in my neighbourhood used to be barefoot a lot and I saw here barefooting through autum and starting in early spring again when the ground was still frozen - however she wore shoes during winter.

Still, I know that hardcore-winter-barefoot-girls exist - remember some tv/paper-reports and internetconversations over the last few years. Still, I never met one in person.

I remember seeing a barefoot girl in New York City in chilly March weather. It wasn't raining or snowing, but I did need to wear a winter coat. She was probably a college student, with a rastafarian hat on and long bell-bottom jeans that made it hard to tell that she was barefoot (it was also nighttime, which made it a little tougher to see). As best as I could tell, she had more gray soles than black, but I was still impressed to see her with no shoes on. Otherwise, every other street feet sighting I've ever had has been May-September in warm or hot weather.

There's a Toes-In-Action video of Celeste walking around in snow. Not sure if she regularly goes barefoot in the snow, or if she just took off her winter footwear for the shot. It was also a different video in that Celeste's feet kept clean by the snow. No black toes to show off to the camera!