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Airport and Foot Friendly Trade Show Shoes?

Posted by Cliff on from the I'm-so-tempted-to-use-the-foot-icon dept.

Milo_Mindbender asks: "Where the heck can you find shoes that let you handle the ten or more hours a day of continuous walking computer trade shows require and won't set off the airport metal detectors? I used to go for hiking boots, but can't find a pair that don't buzz, even after I've stripped off every other particle of metal. I'm getting tired of trial and error (and blisters/sore feet when I go to CES, SIGGRAPH...etc). Does anyone have any suggestions?"

3 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. Shoes and by spudwiser · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They sell these shoes at Wal-Mart under the brand Earth Shoe. There is a style of shoe called earth shoes, and these aren't they. These are laceless black shoes with no frills or anything. They're incredibly simple and comfortable, throw some gel insoles in there and you're set. They contain no metal because they're essentially tennis slippers. They also last damn near forever. I'm on my third pair, which I just got a few weeks ago. The pair before it lasted five years before falling apart, and the first pair lasted six (this is while working retail and restaurant jobs where I was on my feet a lot, also a two-story high school). They also only cost twenty bucks... and they sell them at Wal-Mart.

    Let me sincerely apologize for the long tangent that follows.

    Now that I got my response out of the way, lemme say... fuck this guy

    What? (Score:0, Flamebait)
    by ditto999999999999999 (546129) on 06:25 PM -- Sunday January 11 2004 (#7947563)
    This is the stupid ask slashdot I've ever seen. Have you tried shoe stores? Do you want me to try shoes on for you? Come on Cliff... this is useless.
    I know it's a fake name and this whole flame is pointless, but you gotta understand that there are three points to Ask Slashdot (as far as I can ascertain).

    We all know there's a zillion geeks and goobers that read /. all the time. There are Ask Slashdot questions that get posted because it's a question with a broad answer. A great many of those geeks, and maybe even some of those goobers, might have something interesting to add to the discussion, and the question gets answered thoroughly.

    The second kind of Ask Slashdot questions are ones which are obscure and abstruse which are thrown into the masses, blindly hoping someone knows the perfect answer.

    The last and most confused kind of questions are those that seem completely fucking pointless. A case in point is today's Shoe Issue. Consider those zillions of geeks out there who don't have the time, free brain cycles, or social confidence to figure out many of life's little dillemas that plague us all, such as Is There A Perfect Shoe? This shoe would be comfortable, durable, easily accessible away from home "in case shit", and preferably cheap. Yea, such a shoe doth exist, and it is good. Rejoice smart masses, for the system works.

    i'm really sorry about the flames, guys

    ...a right triangle with legs 300 and 400 megalightyears long! wait... that's a long hypotenuse, my bad...

    --
    .cig - what you do after winning a good flame war
  2. Stay with the hiking boots by ComputerSlicer23 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It's simple. Just take the boots off during the metal detector test. Put them thru the scanner like your carry on bags, just like you do with all other metal objects.

    I put absolutely everything I have with me except for one credit card, $50.00 in cash, and my drivers license, and my ticket home in my carry on bag. My keys, my wallet, my change. My leatherman tool (yes, they have let me get that on a plane, if it's in my bag when they do the scan).

    I took my shoes off, and put them on the belt too after my first experience with being wanded down. I just asked in the Atlanta airport, and they said that was a great idea to avoid the slow down.

    Then, I watch for everything that happens to my bag to ensure nobody takes off with it (common thief trick is to have you put your bag on while someone else is making the scanner go off, so your bag can be walked off with while they take five minutes at the security check point). I think that has stopped now that making the security check point go off gets you wanded down, rather then trying to re-check everyone.

    I've only done it a handful of times, but it always worked for me. I'm not thrilled about being barefoot, but it worked for my trip to pickup my bag, and saved me about 10-15 minutes even with untying and re-tying my boots.

    Kirby

  3. Re:Ecco-brand shoes by KyleCordes · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I second the Ecco recomendation. They're a little pricey, but quite comfortable (much more so than the lesser shoes that I replaced) and they don't set of metal detectors. In fact the last time I went through the security check, I took them off, and the guy said "ah, Ecco. These don't set off the detector, don't bother to take them off in the future".