With 2025 here and ready to rumble, we’d like to start the year with an ode to slippers.

As one gets older, one is capable of understanding how one’s feet are in the requirement of resplendent footwear to ensure comfort, warmth, and glory. Slippers always deliver. One doth know that.

To be fair, when we were younger we did slipper it up as well (often for comedic purposes). Now we’re into our 40s, the things take on an entire new meaning. Without them, our feet would’ve been bloody cold the last few months.

Therefore, all hail slippers! And let us explore this topic.

An Ode to Slippers and Getting Older

Yes, then, this feature is an ode to the joys of getting older. It’s not all doom and gloom leaving behind your 20s. We appreciate us from 20 years ago would be disgraced by 40 year old us, but fact is we have no interest in living the life of a rowdy and reckless 20 year old again.

Now, our primary interests include:

• Getting an early night in our jim jams
• Drinking lots of tea
• Getting the washing done and dried nicely
• Chilling with our cat
• Avoiding nights out at all costs
• Limiting socialising
• Wearing most excellent slippers!

Yes, that quiet life—slippers play a huge part in daily comforts. Pottering about the place faffing about drying socks post-washing cycle just wouldn’t be the same without novelty slippers (or normal ones).

Now, we appreciate some people reading this will note being 40 isn’t old.

We noted in the news Dick van Dyke just turned 99 and celebrated the occasion. That’s a completely different thing and we’re aware of that. But 40 is a turning point where proper adulthood is now officially here and, over the next 10 years, stuff like slippers and cups of tea will become even more important.

The psychology of comfort is worth considering here.

As we get older, the greater need to de-stress and relax. Flinging on a pair of warming novelty slippers creates a sense of nostalgia, promotes comfort, and security. Essential if you’ve got a stressful job or the pressures of modern life are bothering you.

In these times of political turmoil and global uncertainty, there’s something faithful and reassuring about jamming your feet into a cutesy pair of monster slippers (as we do each day). We have control over that—plus, it keeps our toes warm.

Slipper History From Antiquity to Remote Working

As we’re lucky enough to work from home (WFH), slippers are vital to this routine. But it’s nothing new to modern life, these things have been comforting us human beans for a very long time.

We did a bit of research and found the first recorded use of the items dates to the 12th century. Mary Ellen Snodgrass (that is her real surname, we didn’t make it up) documents that in the work World Clothing and Fashion: An Encyclopaedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence (2015). But their use by people dates back to antiquity:

“Ancient Athenians imported Laconian slippers from Sparta or Asian slip-ons from Persia … Roman women wore socci (slippers) indoors and for assignations … After 449, Anglo-Saxon grooms received their brides’ ‘slype-scoes’ (slip-shoes) from their fathers-in-law as symbols of protection and female control … Trends continued to offer new sensations, as with the Italian pianella (wedge mule) and the scarpetta (slipper) of the late 1300s made in the same fabric as an ensemble. In contrast to the stride of the booted male, women adjusted their gait to suit the slipper, an emblem of femininity.”

It’s curious to think about. That far in the distant past seems bleak and harsh for us modern humans. People were tougher back then! None of this namby pamby stuff these days! Oh, except people back then liked wearing slippers. Snowflakes!

Japan and the Cultural Significance of Slippers

As we’re obsessed with Japanese culture, we must end on the note of Japanese slipper culture. There are various types and etiquette to keep in mind, all of which fall under the concept of genkan.

“The genkan is a distinctive and important feature of Japanese homes and buildings, serving as a transitional space between the exterior and interior. Understanding the design, purpose, and etiquette associated with the genkan provides valuable insight into Japanese culture and traditions. As you step into a Japanese home, the genkan is the first space you encounter, setting the tone for the rest of your visit.”

For Westerners like us, it’s a complicated system that’ll seem totally foreign. In Japan, it’s seen as extremely bad manners if you don’t take your shoes off before heading into someone’s home.

“Slippers are the footwear of choice throughout Japanese establishments and are generally worn at all times – except when they are not! Japanese etiquette is full of quirks like this; something is compulsory, but not on certain occasions; or something must always be done in a certain way – except when there is a different way. At first it seems endlessly confusing, but eventually patterns emerge and among these are the patterns relating to slippers.”

As if often does on similar matters, Japan leads the way. It is the slipper utopia we yearn for here in England, one you can back today by rushing out to your nearest store and buying the silliest tootsie warmers you can find.