Is it true that in the USA it is customary to wear outdoor shoes at home?

In many American films and TV series, characters go home and sometimes even lie down on the bed without taking off their shoes. We decided to check whether Americans really do not take off their shoes when entering a house.

Scenes where characters wear boots or sneakers at home can be seen in many popular American TV series, for example in “Friends", "Big Bang Theories"(and one of the main characters, who is terrified of various infections, is not at all embarrassed by this), "Charmed"and many others. This phenomenon is widely discussed on the Russian-language Internet. Articles about whether the habit shown in the movies corresponds to reality and if so, why, you can meet on various thematic portalsdedicated to tourism or life in the USA, on entertainment websites, in glossy magazines And publications about lifestyle, resources questions and answers. Users write about this blogs to "Zene" And "Pulse" 

In Russia and many other countries, walking home in street shoes seems something surprising and even indecent, but the American magazine Smithsonian, published by the Smithsonian Institution, published video “Why do many Indian Americans take off their shoes before entering the house?” Apparently, for some US residents this behavior is unusual and requires some clarification.

In fact, for Americans, the question of whether to take off shoes when entering a living space is debatable. So, in article The New York Times 2019 provides arguments from various scientists for or against wearing outdoor shoes at home. The authors do not come to a clear conclusion, noting that it is better to take off your shoes if there are small children crawling on the floor or people with allergies in the house, and also if the owner of the house you are visiting asks for it.

On the popular English-language platform Reddit in 2022, one of the users asked question: “Where are you from and do you take off your shoes at home?” He himself lived in New York and was a supporter of taking off shoes, and those very TV series where people walked around their apartments in shoes shocked him as a child. Most commentators from across America also adhered to the rule of taking off their boots, shoes or sneakers when entering home, although there were those who wore outdoor shoes at home or lived with someone who did so. Of course, this is not a representative sample, but such discussions once again prove that there is no consensus on this issue in American society.

The Wall Street Journal, one of the most authoritative publications in the United States, published column that asking guests to take off their shoes upon entering is almost insulting. The author lists the reasons why she would take off her shoes in response to such a request: the cultural or religious characteristics of the owners, and also if her shoes are covered with snow, blood, excrement, hazardous biomedical waste, etc. Otherwise, in her opinion, wiping her feet on a rug is quite enough.

Shortly after the publication in The Wall Street Journal, the international research company YouGov conducted survey among residents of the United States - whether it is worth taking off your shoes when coming to visit. 55% of respondents answered that it is worth doing as the owner says (what’s funny is that when asked the “reverse” question - whether it is worth requiring guests to take off their shoes - 59% of respondents answered that they would allow guests to do as they see fit). The remaining 45% of respondents were equally divided: half would prefer not to take off their shoes when visiting, half would prefer to take off their shoes. At the same time, if they were the hosts, 24% of Americans would like their guests to leave their street shoes at the entrance, while 17% would prefer to see their guests wearing shoes.

Three months later, a local television station in Detroit, Michigan, conducted survey among their viewers about what they do with street shoes. It turned out that 64% of respondents always take off their shoes when entering their home, 21% do this sometimes, and only 15% wear shoes around their home. When it comes to guests, the results are somewhat different: 48% of respondents say that they do not ask them to take off their shoes upon entering, 27% sometimes ask, and 26% always do this.

Average annual level precipitation in many US states is 25–30 inches (approximately 630–760 mm), which is comparable to, for example, Moscow (in the Russian capital, an average of 669 mm of precipitation falls per year). It would be logical to assume that the amount of dirt on the streets should be comparable. At the same time, on YouTube you can find some experiments, in which people walk along the roads in different American cities barefoot in white socks - and visually they remain as clean as they were before. Although they may only look clean, how many bacteria they actually have remains a mystery. Conducted in 2008 research microbiologist Charles Gerba, a professor at the University of Arizona, ten participants received new shoes and wore them for two weeks, and then their socks and shoes themselves were examined for bacteria. On average, 421,000 bacteria were found on the outside of the shoes, compared to 2,900 on the inside. The sneakers and shoes were found to contain E. coli, a source of urinary tract infections and diarrhea, as well as other bacteria that cause pneumonia and respiratory tract infections. So visually clean shoes do not always mean the absence of germs.

Scientists from the University of Alaska, who conducted a study in 2009, came to the same conclusion. study, which examined the transmission mechanisms of E. coli and fecal bacteria in rural areas of the state. They found that these microorganisms get onto floor coverings, including through street shoes, that is, even in this state, where, like in many regions of Russia, snow often falls, it is still not a generally accepted practice to take off your shoes when entering a house.

According to the 2022 Global Consumer Survey conducted by Statista, which specializes in market statistics, 76% of Americans used car for commuting to work. In 2017, the US Department of Transportation cited data that 87% of all trips are from the country's residents commit on personal transport, which also reduces the potential level of contamination of shoes - at least visually noticeable. So there is a rational explanation for the much more common habit in America of not taking off shoes in living quarters.

However, this practice is common not only in the United States. For example, shoe manufacturer Deichmann in 2021 spent in the UK, a number of surveys found that from 13% to 31% of residents of the United Kingdom (depending on the region) usually wear outdoor shoes at home, and another 21% to 31% do this from time to time. In the same year, the project of the Australian television channel ABC Australia Talks held a national survey and found that 74% of non-European Australians preferred their guests to remove their shoes, compared with only 21% of European settlers and their descendants. Likewise, those born in Australia are much less likely to asked their guests to take off their shoes than immigrants. So in this case, it’s more about customs (both family and cultural) than about objective reasons like climate or cleanliness of the streets.

Thus, in the United States, the practice of walking at home in street shoes is much more widespread than, for example, in post-Soviet countries, so characters from popular TV series who come home in boots are not just an artistic device. However, American society has not yet come to a common denominator on this issue, and the range of opinions is quite wide - while some consider street shoes at home disgusting, others regard the request to take off your shoes at a party as an insult.

Cover photo: The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019))

Half-truth

What do our verdicts mean?

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