Contingent functionality

When one flip-flop (thong) breaks, the other is abandoned simultaneously (perhaps at the very spot where it broke). Compare this to these shoes - which brings greater status penalization? Wearing a different type of flip-flop on each foot (implying the matching flip-flop broke, though I've never seen this and wouldn't imagine much point to it), wearing "short-tailed shoes", or going barefoot? What does your cultural context decree, and where does the "frayed" or "worn" look go from low-status to vogue? Captured at downtown's Bogyoke Market on a quiet morning, how long do you think these would last here before they are picked up and whisked back into Yangon's recycling/repurposing system? How long would they last on the street where you are? Would they be reclaimed for repurposing's sake (their intrinsic value) or because of their status as an "eyesore" or "rubbish"?

In case the link doesn't come through: http://squareinchanthro.com/wear-pattern-flip-flops

Street shoes

What is the lifespan of a potentially repurposable object left on the street in your neighborhood/city/culture? Who is it that will eventually pick up such an item? Municipal/informal trash collector? Local resident? Random passerby?

Where does the discarded object go? Does it end up in the hands of a craftsperson associated with that object (a cobbler, in this case)? Will these shoes re-enter the economy in a repaired form, or will they be disassembled and divided - beads to one craftsperson, pleather straps to another, soles to a third?

Consider the lifespan of findable objects in your local context - the amount of time they spend being "findable", the number of hands they (or their disparate components) pass through, the changes in value as they pass through each step of their journey to repurposing.

Sandal wall

Here are wear patterns from thousands of students of this monastic school
made over the years stepping into and out of their sandals in precisely
same way. Without actually watching a student put on/take off their
sandals, what does the wall's wear pattern reveal about the activity?

If one student were to remove their sandals a different way - say, removing
their sandals sideways or facing outwards from the wall instead of facing
forwards - how would that affect others' future sandal removal methods and
preferences? Consider that by following suit with such a renegade that a
student would not only be betraying their former self (so accustomed to the
old sandal-removal conventions), but also the thousands of students before
them whom that individual student had neither met nor even known of, and
yet who left their very same mark of conformity on the wall (just as all of
the prior students before him or her had).

When traces of those before your are more evident, does diverging from their
paths present a greater challenge?

Company

Americans have cars in the driveway, and in Myanmar it varies by season. Year-round, shoes piled up outside doors often means guests are inside (done to keep from tracking the dirtiness of outside streets inside), and during rainy season flocks of umbrellas congregate around entryways (often opened to encourage drying). 

How do different cultures modify entryways (or the carried object itself) to fit seasonally changing carrying behaviors?

Pants-Shoes, or Shoe-Pants?

What would shoes designed for contexts where they must be put on and taken off repeatedly look like? What would lower-body wear designed to accommodate the temporary storage/carry of shoes look like?

Walking through a temple during a major local festival, one will notice how crossing certain thresholds is often marked by the congesting bustle of people stooping over to either remove or put on their shoes. Temporarily storing them where one took them off, however, is not an option at this festival. Unlike most temple-visiting experiences in Myanmar, progress through this festival taking place on the temple grounds is linear, not circular. Thus, parking one's shoes at a central point is not an option, as shoe-wearing and shoe-forbidden zones are interspersed with one another, and one must cross one to arrive at the others. Feet and (not surprisingly, shoes) are considered very dirty in Myanmar culture, so wearing shoes in shoe-free parts of the temple is out of the question, as is walking with bare feet in areas where others are wearing shoes. 

With no guarantee that one's progress will be take them back through past-visited areas, revelers must hold their shoes in their hands, limiting their ability to interact with and appraise the wares that line the temple walkways during this festival.  This child seems to have come up with a clever solution, though whether it is culturally sanctioned remains to be seen, and not all footwear is as pants-compatible as these flip-flops (nor all pants as flip-flop compatible, for that matter).  Alternatively, how can vendors better display their goods to accommodate browsers who have their hands full? Some vendors are quick to offer a chair or stool they keep set aside for interested potential customers, as they know once they convince them to take a load off that they'll be much more compelled to stay seated for a while and momentarily step out of the human river they were riding up to that point. Revelers' need for rest, plus the culturally strong feelings of not wanting to be indebted to anyone for any favors and "feeling bad" for making others exert any effort or go through any trouble (such as providing a chair) could mean the difference for a vendor between a profitable day of good sales and a painfully long time spent watching people shuffle by, clutching their shoes.

PS: Guest post over at REculture blog

Second-foot

A bin of mixed found, second-hand, and new shoes on display at a
convenience store. What is culturally appropriate for determining
items of second-hand clothing that can be worn by those outside of
your immediate family? Why shoes, why here? Given the high visibility
of these shoes in this centrally-located community store, and the
familiarity of the customers with the shoes on display (who sold them,
where they came from, etc.), what are the implications of getting
"caught" having bought non-new shoes from this bin? Large enough
disincentive to keep one from buying a needed pair? Unfortunately I
did not get any dependable information about the footwear turnover
rate. I did regret leaving without purchasing the Mario flip-flops.