What: They say ignorance is bliss. And that’s definitely true in this case. Two brave journalists put our favorite summertime footwear – flip-flops – to the test. They each wore a pair of flip-flop for four days straight, in notoriously dirty NYC, and then took them to a lab. What they discovered was pretty disturbing. It seems that fecal bacteria and E. coli are the least of our concerns – while these bacteria showed up on the reporters’ (scary) sandals, it’s the “Staphylococcus aureus” that really worried everyone. This germ can not only make you sick if it enters your bloodstream, but kill you. Yes, indirectly, your flip-flops could kill you. So, if you’ve got a cut on your foot, maybe wear close-toe shoes the next time you’re out and about?

What They Say:

The $3.50 flip-flops harbored approximately 18,100 bacteria of the five most prevalent varieties found. (Unsurprisingly, the pair that made the trip to Coney Island and stopped off in the public restroom had roughly 13,900 more bacteria.)

What We Say: We’re not sure what the actual odds are that you’ll die from wearing flip-flops, and we’ve still got some questions – does the quality of the shoe have any effect whatsoever on the amount of bacteria it picks up? And how much grimier is NYC compared to other cities? Regardless…we’ll have a little trouble slipping on flip-flops for a while.

Photo by Fuschia Foot