Would you wear shackled shoes?

Jamila Rizvi Sunday 17 June 2012 6:20am

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By JAMILA RIZVI

Adidas have released a new style of sneakers and if you’ve been longing to perfect that “on the run for the law” look, that is a winner on the runways of Paris this winter – then these are the shoes for you.

Why? Because they have canary yellow plastic shackles attached to them. You heard right, the kind of shackles that naughty bread stealing types from the days of Dickens wore around their ankles. Hot.

The sneakers (which won’t be released until August – so steady those itching credit-card grabbing hands a little longer) were promoted on the Adidas website for the first time this week. The tagline was “Got a sneaker game so hot you lock your kicks to your ankles?”

It gets you thinking what the fine folk over at the American Journal of Research in Personality would have to say about the wearers of the shackled sneakers.

They have recently released a study shows that with a whopping 90 per cent accuracy – strangers can guess your personal characteristics based on your shoes.

Here’s how it went down. Several hundred random residents of Kansas (as in, the place where Toto and Dorothy aren’t any more) gave up their most frequently worn pairs of shoes, all in the name of science. They also recorded their age, gender, income, political affiliation and a few other important personality traits and handed that info over to researchers.

The Medical Daily reports what happened next:

“63 observers were then asked to look at each pair and guess the gender, age, social status and different personality traits of the owner, like whether the owner was an extrovert or introvert, liberal or conservative and the degree of their emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness.

Researchers found that observers did well in guessing characteristics of the volunteers in almost all categories, and concluded that people do wear shoes that reveal their personality, whether they intend to or not.”

The researchers concluded that:

“Practical and functional shoes generally belong to agreeable people, ankle boots fit with more aggressive personalities and uncomfortable looking shoes were worn by calm personalities.

People with “attachment anxiety” or people that were most worried about their relationships generally had brand new and well-kept shoes.

Expensive shoes belonged to high earners, flashy and colorful footwear belonged to extroverts and shoes that were not new but appeared to be spotless belonged to conscientious types.”

Reading this, it is becoming increasingly apparent that I definitely don’t have any form of attachment anxiety. My shoes are well worn and I’m quite proud that my stilettos do not have an original heel between them.

What can I say? I’m a cross country hobbler on a night out and am not afraid of clambering through your garden bed if it reduces the time spent on my journey home.

Some say that the eyes are the window into a person’s soul – well they’re wrong. Because it’s all about the feet now people.

The scientists from Kansas – the original home of Dorothy and her sparkly red clogs – say so.

Beyonce

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What pair of shoes do you wear most often? According to the study, what does that say about your personality? Did the researchers get it right?