Kelly Larsen invites us to touch her feet.

Will they feel hard, leathery, calloused? Or maybe rough and scaly, like the pads on a dog's paws?

We prod her heels and the ball of her size 7 soles. The skin seems ordinary: pink, clean, soft and pliable. Not what we expect from someone who spends most of her time in bare feet, both outdoors and in.

Larsen, a 24-year-old Eau Claire, Wis., resident, doesn't wear shoes to church or to work. She's barefooted when she goes to restaurants or the mall. She banks barefoot, grocery shops barefoot, goes to the library barefoot.

It doesn't matter what's underfoot — carpeting, tile, gravel or snow — Larsen takes it all on naked feet.

She's not alone, but almost, at least in the United States. A generation or two ago, it wasn't unusual to see kids barefoot. But Americans now are shod pretty much from birth to death.

"For society in general, the tendency, the perception is always to wear shoes unless there's a specific reason to be barefoot,'' says Jim Guttmann of Lakeville, Minn., who tries to go barefoot as often as he can. "My perception is that for most folks in society, there's a feeling that barefooting is one of three things: It's either illegal, unsafe or unsanitary.''

Barefooters say the alternative hurts.

"I was really picky about my shoes. I wore tennis shoes 99 percent of the time,'' Larsen says. But in shoes, "I would sweat like a pig.'' She got blisters easily, and her feet hurt, despite custom-made inserts.

She says her feet became healthier after she took off her shoes about 1 1/2 years ago.

"Your feet are stronger. They become more dexterous. Any fungal problems just plummet,'' says Robert Juengst, a San Diego man who started hiking and backpacking barefoot after getting tired of aching feet, lost toenails and stinky soles caused by hiking boots.

"Barefoot walking is the natural and normal way to go,'' says Dr. J. Chris Coetzee, assistant professor and director of the foot and ankle division of the University of Minnesota Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. "In most of Africa and Asia, the majority of people still go essentially barefoot and have significantly fewer foot problems than (we do).''

Guttmann said feet already do what shoe manufacturers claim for their products: "A lot of those things you mention — being lightweight, waterproof, durable and made to step on — that describes your feet without shoes.''

Besides hurting their feet with shoes, barefooters say that shoddies — their word for members of shoe-wearing society — are depriving themselves of a pleasurable sensory experience.

"We tend to see a certain irony in people who are interested in being in contact with nature and yet are terribly afraid to be barefoot outdoors,'' says Richard Frazine, author of The Barefoot Hiker. "Wearing shoes is like wearing earmuffs. It's a sensory dimension that we don't see a reason to be without.''

"Pine needles. Long pine needles. Forest duff. Beach sand is pleasant. Mud. Pea gravel. Fresh fallen snow,'' enthuses Dave Wolz, a Des Moines, Iowa, resident who says he's gone nearly 500 days without wearing shoes.

"Hot mud. Hot mud is great, dude,'' says Juengst. Barefooters also say they save money. "A kabillion dollars,'' says Juengst, who has gone 15 years without shoes. He wore a suit and tie to his wedding but not shoes.

Finally, exposed toes come in handy when you need to grab something, barefooters say. Wolz says he once had a job picking up litter. He used his feet.

"I can open doors with my feet sometimes. I've typed with my feet before,'' says Larsen, who has repetitive stress injury in her hands. "I always picked up stuff with my feet, but I do it more now.''

Although the temperature is hovering at about the freezing point, Larsen walks easily across a parking lot, not wincing or mincing when she hits a patch of icy snow. In really cold weather, Larsen and other barefooters reluctantly pull on some sort of footwear.

Barefooters say they watch where they're going, and the world isn't as dangerous for the naked sole as many shoddies think.

"Believe it or not, the world is not covered with shards of broken glass, and the more you walk, the tougher your feet become,'' Larsen says.

She also says she's poked a piece of glass 4 or 5 millimeters into her foot without drawing blood.

"I actually experiment with this, trying to cut my feet with glass or a knife, and it's just not possible,'' she says. "The skin is really thick.''

That's why she keeps a couple of chunks of rock in her apartment.

"If my feet start itching, the fingernails won't do it,'' she says. "The best way to scratch it is with a rock.''

Bare feet also get dirty, but they're easier to wash and cleaner than shoes or feet that have been sweating in shoes all day, say barefooters.

"There is nothing more unhygienic than a foot which is inside a shoe,'' says William Rossi, a former podiatrist, author and consultant to the footwear industry. Shoes track in more bacteria and dirt than a bare foot will, he says.

The inside of your shoe is a miniature Superfund site, combining heat, moisture, bacteria and the chemicals from shoe tanning and manufacturing, he says.

"Shoes and feet aren't compatible. No matter the brand, the price, the quality, the style, it has a negative effect on the foot,'' Rossi says.

"You can hurt your hands, you can get slivers, you can get germs from door knobs, you can cut yourself, so why don't people wear gloves all the time?'' Guttmann says.

The shoeless say that laws against being barefoot in the United States are largely a myth.

Minnesota officials, for example, say there's no state law against driving shoeless or going into a restaurant or grocery store barefoot.

Larsen keeps a photocopy of a letter from the Wisconsin State Health Department in her purse stating the same thing, ready to pull out if someone says she has to put on shoes.