Born in the wrong era? No. There is no wrong era.

bare feet.

"what's so good about them?"

sorry. wrong question.
it ought to be,

"what bad thing could there possibly be about them?"

going barefooted is a joy.
shoes only impede on the freedom of our feet.

in all that i could think of
(which of course was not a lot. all to retain the bias. obviously.)
there is only ONE bad thing about going barefooted.
your feet are exposed to getting injured. but that's only if you step on something sharp.
so just watch out for where you're going and you'll be fine.
AND STOP LITTERING.

now then what'so good about barefeet?
the pros, dear reader, are many.

1. you have the 'touch' ability where you can actually FEEL what you're stepping on. this is especially useful in sports. it is imperative that the feel of your feet is at it's maximum. maximum feel of the ball. maximum feel of the wall. maximum feel of the playground.
things like that.

2. you also have the flexibilty of shoelessness. shoes are bulky and clunky. good ones wrap your feet to MIMIC the shape of you feet(why do they need to do that? "mimic"? BAH! just take the dreadful things off and you're good to go). of course the extent of clunkiness varies greatly from shoe to shoe. big skater shoes are as good as wearing boxes on your feet. maybe nike free or old skool kanvas shoes are closer to plactic wrap, but bare feet(logically) are still the best.

3. next, you have the high response of feet. supreme traction on most surfaces. and they NEVER wear out! the grooves on the soles of our feet will grow back after they've been worn out. and you can play sports with little fear of slipping because your feet stop when you WANT them to stop. and this for most sports. no shoe can beat this.

4. finally, you have the TOE-FACTOR. this is extremely important. toes work wonders i tell you. they help give you push-off power(or TOE-POWER) i.e. they make you go faster. so(logically again) barer toes= barer power(or BEARer power? haha. pun. not funny.) or take for example in climbing and catching, they give you what i call TOE-GRIP. your toes curl like fingers to grab things. this is especially helpful in many circumstances(when your pen drops for example). how could you ever pick up a pen using your feet with shoes on? you CAN'T. toes help in juggling too(no, i DON'T call it TOE-JUGGLING. there's a limit to my lameness. i call it TOE-JUGGLES)

of course there are other advantages, but i think these points would suffice in showing most people(there remains that small fraction of society that would insist that shoes are better, but they shall be dealt with eventually) how desirable it is to go bare footed.

obviously there will be opposition in the form of some common counter-arguments,
and so, in typical G.P. fashion, i shall now rebut the rebuttals that most likely will be hurled at me.

A. but aren't shoes designed to support our feet and cushion the impact that our feet experience? i mean like the strain from daily use will wear it out. so i thought shoes are there to help us?

shoes are there because our feet have been pampered.
we find it hard to run without shoes for 2 reasons.

we are firstly too used to running with the added comfort of shoes. because we wear them from our early days, our feet grow soft. and so we grow dependent on them, without them, we feel like it's too much for our feet.
secondly, we don't run with the correct running technique. because we don't, our shoes need to do the job of absorbing the impact to protet our feet. if we DID run correctly, then our muscles would grow overtime and they'd be capable of absorbing the shock that our shoes are so used to dispersing.

B. shoes protect our feet from sharp objects! what about that?
what about that? sharp objects like what? glass bits? nails? rocks?
now think.
where do glass bits come from? beer bottles and cars...and alarm clocks.
nails? i don't know. people just throw them around or something. rocks don't really injure us, but they can hurt. that's about it though, nothing more than momentary pain.
it's because people don't do a good job of clearing up that we have to deal with such things. it's because people throw such things around in the first place that the whole problem arises. so it's a problem of Sin. so ok. shoes protect our feet, but that in no way is an enhancement.
why would you run around in a place full of glass bits and nails anyway?
i mean play soccer, see street soccer court clear of such things then ok mah.
run, then see the path ahead lah. don't run in some backalley with drunkards smashing bottles and cars crashing and stuff should be fine also.
so question solved.

maybe the time when i'll admit shoes are necessary is when people are born with feet defects. like flat feet or something.

hence that ends this discourse...for now.
the conclusion of the matter.
BARE FEET RULE.