Airport Checkpoint / temporary sole-of-foot protection
 

I would like to determine if passengers going through airport checkpoints would welcome availability of temporary, disposable, stick-on, uni-foot-shaped paper sheets for the soles of their feet for use in passing through airport checkpoints. The adhesive is very low tack. The purpose is to have a temporary barrier between the airport floor and your bare, or stockinged, foot when passing through the checkpoint. That is, I have a patent for such a product and am conducting some market research before taking the idea forward (i.e., to manufacturing). The sheets would likely be dispensed on a tablet, low cost, and could be of 2 or 3 different sizes to accommodate differents sizes of feet. (I am also looking at other settings for use of this product, such as hospitals/clincs, real estate open houses, and others.) Do you think such a product is a good idea, or not? Would you use it? If so, why? If not, why not? Thanks for any and all serious replies to this question -- GwenL

I personally wouldn't use it -- but after years on this and other forums and giving travel talks/programs -- I've learned LOTS of folks have a lower "ick factor" than I do. (it wasn't until I started giving my packing programs that I learned that some find handwashing undies in the hotel sink is "too gross to consider")

You might also want to post over on the Lounge -- it gets much more traffic than this board. I don't think the Fodors editors would object/consider this advertising since there is no product yet -- so you should be OK.

No way. For one thing it doesn't bother me, and for another I travel in boots so I have enough hassle without adding anything else. But like janisj says some people apparently get upset about it - plenty more interesting things to worry about!

Sounds like a good idea for those that are barefoot. I always wear socks so it doesn't bother me. What comes to mind is what happens to all these paper stick-ons. Will they end up on the floor or will people put them in a wastepaper basket. With thousands going through security the throw-a-ways could end up to be a problem.

Nope, not something I would use. Normally I'm in sneakers and sockletts going thru an airport so it's not an issue. If I'm traveling tropical so in flipflops or sandals, I just march on thru security barefoot and try not to think about it! :-)

People who don't want to walk barefoot in airports already have this solved by using their own socks. I noticed this just a couple days ago on a flight departing a hot climate, girl in flip flops pulls out those little athletic sockies for her walk thru security.

I probably wouldn't use them. I carry a pair of the socks with treads that hospitals give out and put them on over my socks.

I always have a stash of those disposable socks they give out in bus/1st and use them both for security and in-flight. This is probably not the best place for your market research, as the audience here is mostly hard-core long term travelers who have their routines worked out and who wonder "who buys all that stuff in the Magellan catalog?"

Not likely to use those since I take travel socks for just this purpose and have for years.

It seems like just an extra step and dinking around to be honest. Most people I've noticed fly with shoes/boots and socks on anyway because airplanes are often cold and everyone wants to wear their biggest pair of shoes. If you already have socks on there's no point. The few people I've noticed flying with sandals on either carry a pair of socks if they're actually worried about it or simply don't care.

If you were really that worried about a bit of germs in the 8 feet you're without shoes, wouldn't it be easier to just wear throw away socks or to spray on antibacterial gel? For non-airport scenarios, it's just easier to use those blue net booties that go on over shoes. Most companies that involve going into peoples homes or businesses with dirty shoes (home repair/maintenance, etc) carry those booties with them already. They're very cheap and it's very easy to just slip on over shoes.

Also, how would this product work? You stand on one foot to take off your shoe, and while still standing on one foot you peel a backing off of a foot shaped piece of paper and stick it to the bottom of your foot. Repeat for the other side. Get to the other side of security and do the reverse. All I can think of is sticking an oversized panty-liner to the bottom of each foot.

It just seems like a hassle in an area where people are already trying to hurry. I apologize as that sounds mean and I don't intend it to, I simply don't see the use in that sort of product.

The oversized panty-liner is exactly what I thought of too. Except it would have to be something that wouldn't be too slippery.

I wouldn't use it and personally, don't like the idea because it seems wasteful and not very earth friendly. OTOH, some people might like it. I don't want to discourage you but there's my truth.

isn't there enough waste in the world without inventing amd or adding to it????

I have to agree with you northie. It sounds like more crap made in China.

I wouldn't use it either. I don't like the disposable aspect and I don't have any problems walking through security in my socks or even my barefeet.

I wouldn't use them because:

1. I always wear socks when on a plane (I get cold feet very easily).

2. I'm in agreement with those who consider this one use item (and very short use at that) to be wasteful. I would also consider it a waste of money.

3. I think it would be awkward to put them on in the security line.

I wouldn't use them. I figure my feet are in worse places than on a busy floor... I use a hotel shower, which might not of had the floor washed following the depature of its last occupant, I sleep on the same mattress that many others have slept on (super eew when you think of it), I try on clothes in shops that others have tried on (I assume) without them being washed first....

Maybe we could use them for the airline bathroom floor, half way into a long haul flight, instead?
:-)

What the OP describes wouldn't be sufficient for the plane's bathroom floor half-way through a long haul flight. Something like galoshes would be more useful in that setting, I think.

Maybe waders.

or Crocs!

It would depend on the Crocs style. Nothing with vents or slingback style.

If I travel in sandals I bring my own pair of socks. I use them only for security going and coming and they are not worn in between. I won't walk barefoot even at home so I am definitely not doing it on a disgusting airport floor.

Thanks all of you for these comments! They are greatly appreciated, and more are still welcome. I'm still thinking there could be venues for this type of quick foot protection for some travellers, and/or in other venues such as spas, clinics, etc. That aside, I'm wondering if most folks who read this Fodor page are the truly serious, hardcore world wanderers who see the bigger picture of cours, as do I too, to be honest. Could there not still be that 1% of travellers with 'super ew' thresholds who don't want to risk the potential athelete's foot exposure, for example?. - As to the waste issue, which I sincerely recognize, the foot protectikon would be peeled off a tablet and could be slapped on the table 'after' the check point to stack and toss as one little block at day's end, say if TSA provided them? Keep your thoughts coming in. They are greatly appreciated. FYI, the idea is patented already. GwenL

<Could there not still be that 1% of travellers with 'super ew' thresholds who don't want to risk the potential athelete's foot exposure, for example?>

I'm sure there are. And I'm sure they have their own socks already.

I don't care how you collect them 'to stack and toss' it's still a huge waste... if every passenger in every airport started using them. HUGE.

<<<...could be slapped on the table 'after' the check point to stack and toss as one little block at day's end, say if TSA provided them?>>>

This would be annoying to be honest. There's rarely enough space as it is with people trying to put their shoes and belts back on, to grab their stuff, put their laptops back into their bags, etc. You want to use table space for someone to nicely stack their <s>pantyliner</s> footy thing? Nobody is going to do it. Most people won't even stop if something they threw at the trash can misses. Beyond that, you just made the argument that the floor is so gross that we shouldn't be walking on it but then you say that you want people to grab that with their hand to take it off and stack it on a table? Ack! I'd rather have my feet be gross than my hands.

Again, for spas or clinics they're just going to put reusable socks on. A panty liner stuck to your foot is not the same relaxed feeling that a spa is going for and a clinic doesn't want the slip hazard on the tile floors. A spa wants cushy socks and a clinic wants booty socks with rubber on the bottom for grip.

Anybody with the low ick threshhold is just going to take a pair of socks to either put on their bare feet or over their normal socks.

How do they peel off of a "tablet"? Is it easy grip somehow or do you have to fight with it? Who peels them off? Does each person just take a sheet and peel theirs off or does someone hand out two paper feet to anyone who wants? What happens to the "tablet" that they came on?

I just don't see any kind of realistic use for the kind of product you're describing. To be successful a product needs to be either useful or convenient, and to be really successful it should be both. This is neither. It doesn't sound any more useful than the other things that people already do and it sounds less than convenient.


Wouldn't it just be easier to put a quick antibacterial spray at the end of the security line or a big bucket of antibacterial wipes? Heck, I'd be happy if they'd put a few chairs at the end of security! :)

Usually we are travelling with numerous bags - add to that a stroller, a baby - I can hardly imagine putting everything down to apply something to my bare foot. And how much would it slow down the already sluggish queues at security? I am also not that finicky that I think I couldn't cope with a few germs coming into contact with my foot. I can see that there's always some people who would go for this but I'm just not one of them. Maybe in a spa you would get more interest (less time-pressure), but I don't think this is something I'd want to sink my money into.

Lavandula

"I'm wondering if most folks who read this Fodor page are the truly serious, hardcore world wanderers who see the bigger picture of cours [sic]"

I would hope that a completed 10 month RTW and an upcoming 6 month RTW would qualify me as a serious traveler? And what on earth do you mean by the bigger picture? This is a solution in search of a problem, an unnecessary complication to an already unnecessarily complicated procedure. Get over it.

"Could there not still be that 1% of travellers with 'super ew' thresholds who don't want to risk the potential athelete's foot exposure, for example?."

Obviously, you are targeting the wrong 99% for your research. Good luck. But I agree that it seems messy. Who wants something stuck to their feet? That has a bigger "ew" factor for me. Then there's the sticky stuff that might stick to my feet.

Comments are greatly appreciated. Please keep them coming. To clarify, this product--IF it is to be developed for the checkpoint setting among others--would not be required of anyone, but only there for a traveller who doesn't have a solution in hand already at the checkpoint; and, who prefers some protection to keep their foot clean for a variety of reasons. Only micro-traces of a very low tack adhesive might be left on the sole of foot or stocking. Do those facts make this concept more palatable?

There's nothing un-"palatable" about the idea. It simply has no use, imho. What are you talking about "see the bigger picture"? See the bigger picture of what? How clean or not the floors are in a security line at an airport? Hardly a world-pressing problem.

Something that would actually make life better for travelers at TSA checkpoints is the provision of quart plastic bags for those who forgot theirs. I encountered this at Montreal airport yesterday (apparently courtesy of the airport), and since I'd forgotten to move my Purell and Cortisone to my checked bag it was much appreciated. I did not miss tacky (in at least two senses of the word) foot "protectors".

As for the real estate open house perspective, I think you want people to take their shoes off to keep floors/carpets clean from them more than they want to keep their feet clean. If you can get agents and customers to take their shoes off, then I think they would be more likely to agree to wear disposable booties than something they stick on their feet. Just not appealing despite the low residue and sounds awkward to put on/take off.

I dunno, ever since Iowa_Redhead's post I keep picturing just passing out pantyliners for people to stick on their feet!!!

Suze, scented or unscented :?



Sorry Gwen, it's not that it's "unpalatable", it's simply that I don't see any use for what you describe that isn't already served in a better fashion.

What sizes would be available? It can't just be one size fits all because you'd end up with kids tripping over the thing if it's meant for a man with size 15 feet. I can't imagine the hassle of in addition to trying to do whatever TSA wants you to do that day, at that airport (it's always different in some fashion) to trying to find the right size foot pantyliner for everyone in your group, getting the thing off of the backing, taking shoes off and sticking it to feet, getting through security, taking the thing off and putting shoes back on. It just seems like extra steps that simply are not needed.

Anyone who is in that 1% of germophobes will already have a solution and/or won't take the risk that the airport might have run out of their size of pantyliners.

I can't think of a single instance where sticking something like that to the bottom of my foot seems like a good idea. People are not going to use them, if you don't want potential buyers to wear shoes then simply provide a seat and/or a basket of throwaway shoe covers like at the hospital. Medical clinics or hospitals won't use them due to the slip hazard. Spas won't use them because it's simply not relaxing to have something stuck to the bottom of your foot like wet toilet paper. Besides, how would they do the pedicure that way? Any profession that routinely involves dirty shoes/boots and going inside would prefer disposable booties to go over their shoes so that they don't have to take the time to remove them.

I would not use them and would be greatly annoyed to be stuck in a line behind grandma and grandpa-"never traveled" as they now try to find these sticky things in granny's purse and hold on to something long enough to get them stuck right side up to their feet and not on the hem of granny's dress and then have the darned things come off just as they step through the screener..and have to go back to retrieve them and try again and then there really is the whole touching them after they've been on the dirty floor. YIKES!! I say....<u>back to the drawing board.</u>

This thread is so funny it's getting mentioned in The Lounge forum as a thread-of-the-week!

They make pantiliners regular and long. A box can last a lifetime if you use for feet only.

Heck, no. I've already got to take off my shoes, take off my jacket, take off my belt and maybe some jewelry, haul out my laptop, haul out my Ziploc bag with the liquids and gels, put it all in a tray or two, remember to keep my passport and boarding pass in my hand....and you want me to stop and peel something to put on (and then take off) my feet? No way I'm adding even another 5 seconds to what's already an amazingly tedious routine. Besides, I have zero ick factor about airport floors and my feet.

Since a number have asked...by 'bigger picture' was meant distribution and use through end point of disposal and waste degradation (the environmental issue some have mentioned). Again, such a product would be entirely OPTIONAL and ONLY FOR persons desiring something at the last minute, an option perhaps to surgical booties sometimes seen now at checkpoints. Albeit a very small sample so far, comments continue to be of interest. Intention is not to convince anyone to switch styles at (I agree, tedious!) checkpoints; only to inquire about whether some might find it an option of interest. -- Thanks P.S. Am I mistaken, or is that ignorant/arrogance showing its face in the July 30 9:19 a.m. comment above? That's so yesterday, TC. Tsk.

GwenL~ Perhaps you are not familiar with the concept, but it's called a *JOKE* (TC's post above).

Hmmm, it looked like an answer to the question.