Cursor, a AI coding startup worth $9.9B, has an interesting office policy: no shoes. Employee Ben Lang posted to X about the policy along with a photo of shoes lining Cursor’s San Francisco office entrance.
Lang said he’d worked at another startup, Notion, with the same rule.
Some commenters expressed alarm over smelly feet and the haphazard way the shoes were scattered across the ground, while a few noted it was probably more comfortable.
While it may seem unusual…
… to Americans outside of visiting certain friends’ homes, other cultures routinely remove shoes for hygienic purposes. You walk around outside on dirt and who knows what else, and you don’t want to track that indoors.
- In many Asian cultures, it’s standard practice to remove the shoes you wear outdoors and exchange them for house slippers when you enter someone’s home or some businesses.
- It’s also common in Sweden, where Arvid Lunnemark — a co-founder of Cursor parent Anysphere — grew up, to remove shoes before entering someone’s home. In a 2017 article, Inc highlighted Stockholm startup Instabridge and its sock-footed employees.
A spokesperson for Speak, a Bay Area-based language learning app, told Business Insider that its no-shoes policy is an homage to Speak’s first market, South Korea, and that employees receive a “slipper stipend” when they are hired.
Business Insider also covered this trend in 2019, noting two startups — productivity app (and Lang’s previous employer) Notion and payroll and HR company Gusto. Their CEOs both grew up in shoeless households and continued this tradition in the workplace. Their offices even had heated floors to keep feet warm.
Implementing a no-shoes option…
… doesn’t have to be a mess, like Lang’s picture. Companies can supply cubbies, like yoga studios often have, and offer employees slippers, a slipper stipend, or shoe coverings.
The Guardian even suggested ordering company-branded socks to offer guests to the office.
And as for smelly feet, they often smell because bacteria and sweat become trapped in your shoes and socks, especially if you wear the same shoes over and over. Let them breathe!
