They confiscated all our shoes. Crashing into someone at the bottom with shoes could be a problem too.

Huh. That sounded wrong so I googled it. I thought it was all shoes.

You’re right. What I said above used to be true. That seems to have been questioned in the 90s and in 2000 the FAA finalized a rule changing it.

The current recommendation (https://www.faa.gov/travelers/fly_safe/information) say you can keep your shoes on but to remove high heels, as you said.

A bit of googling says it was changed because of passengers injuring their feet on the terrain/debris after crashes. Additionally modern slides are much tougher than they used to be and won’t tear from shoes and probably even high heels.

But I bet high heels are probably not a smart thing to be wearing on possibly uneven debris covered terrain in an emergency when you need to move fast and safely.

Learn something new every day.

Not just high heels, but also many boots have sharp protrusions (e.g. lace hooks on some hiking boots and work boots, metal decorations on goth and cowboy boots)

Ahh that makes way more sense. Thanks.