TSA rule change puts gnarly feet where they belong — back in shoes

Washington Post

10-07-2025

For nearly 20 years, millions of bare feet have marched through security checkpoints at airports around the country, a motley parade of hairy and Roman toes, calloused soles and cracked heels, nails black from marathons or chipped red from faded manicures. These feet are best enjoyed in private. Yet since 2006, they have been on stark display.
Until this week.
With little warning and much fanfare, all those feet have disappeared. After a tip-toe-quiet rollout at select airports earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the shoes-off rule is now on. Since Monday, passengers no longer have to remove their footwear in standard Transportation Security Administration lanes.
Feet are finally back where they belong: in shoes.
'We don't have to feel as if we're in the airport with Bigfoot anymore,' said Dani Korwin, president of Parts Models, a New York modeling agency that specializes in extremities.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem assured travelers that TSA's technology is advanced enough to detect contraband in shoes still attached to the wearer. Scrapping this step should speed up the line and free up space in the cramped security area. Checkpoints will no longer resemble DSW stores.
Korwin was one of the rejoicers. She has a discerning eye for feet, and airports, at least before this week, were filled with untapped talent. But, she said, scouting in the security line was a horrifying prospect.
'If I want to have a pleasant trip, I try not to look at their feet, because the majority of the population is not foot-groomed,' Korwin said. 'Not having to deal with that visually is a big improvement.
When traveling, New York-based foot model Branda Zeng is more curious than Korwin, her agent. Zeng, whose appendages have appeared in ads for jewelry, apparel and beauty products, said feet can be as revealing as a diary or medicine cabinet. In the short time it takes a passenger to walk through the screening machine, she can peer into their sole.
'Feet kind of show what a person's hygiene is,' Zeng said.
Her assessment of travelers' upkeep is low.
'They are not taking care of their feet,' she said. 'Maybe going through TSA they don't care, because they're never going to see these people ever again.'
During his nearly eight years with TSA, Caleb Harmon-Marshall was inundated with feet. They walked toward him and away from him; they stood so close to him, he could smell their special fragrance and behold their unique peculiarities.
'Sometimes you'd see people come through with all kinds of stuff on their feet,' Harmon-Marshall said. 'Maybe it was a fungus?'
Harmon-Marshall, who worked at the country's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, left the agency in 2022. Now a content creator with a weekly newsletter called Gate Access, he broke the news about the rule change, posting it on TikTok. Many commenters questioned the value of their TSA PreCheck membership, and a few reminded their fellow travelers to wear clean socks.
During an interview with The Washington Post, Harmon-Marshall reflected on his time in the shoe-free-zone.
'I've always found it disgusting to see all these people walking barefoot in TSA checkpoints and going into the body scanner and putting their feet on the yellow footprint,' Harmon-Marshall said. 'It's rarely cleaned. It's very unsanitary.'
The old TSA rule wasn't just ugly; it was unhealthy.
Priya Parthasarathy, a podiatrist and spokesperson for the American Podiatric Medical Association, said she has clients who suffer from 'foot anxiety.' Their self-consciousness may prevent them from participating in a variety of barefoot activities, such as dipping their 10 little piggies in a pool or a pedicure soak.
'I'm sure going through TSA at the airport is traumatizing for a lot of my patients,' she said. 'A lot of people are embarrassed about their feet.'
For people with tactile sensitivities, an airport's linoleum flooring can feel like stepping on a fly strip, the sticky material clinging to the fleshy foot pads. Facilities with carpeting offer more cushion and less suction, but the fabric can act as a sponge, absorbing microorganisms picked up and passed along by millions.
Parthasarathy said people who stroll around public places in their bare feet can contract athlete's foot or plantar warts. If they tread on a foreign object, they can tear the skin, an open door for infection. The best armor against the spread of bacteria and disease, she said, is shoes.
As the mom of three boys, Parthasarathy enrolled her entire family in TSA PreCheck. She didn't need to add to her already heavy caseload.
Tami Terzian's feet are her livelihood. After passing through security, the hand-and-foot model will use baby wipes to clean her assets.
Terzian, who is based in New York, is not offended by other people's feet. Her mother, a self-professed germophobe, is less forgiving. Lynda Terzian basically quit travel because of her aversion to the microbe-riddled airport floor.
On Tuesday, Terzian shared the news with her mother. She texted back, 'I can fly again!!!'
Alas, the scourge of bare feet is not over. The offenders still lurk at terminal gates and on airplanes. To banish them from your sight, imagine you are back at the checkpoint, enveloped by shoes.