Toe­Sox, the ath­letic apparel com­pany that spe­cial­izes in socks that fit five toes like a glove and have a sticky sole sur­face, was pil­lo­ried in the blo­gos­phere a few months ago because it used two women au nat­ural to model their mer­chan­dise. Kathryn Budig did ads that fea­tured yoga poses. Car­rie Macy did Pilates rou­tines. Rarely men­tioned was the pho­tog­ra­pher, Jasper Johal, who has spe­cial­ized in the human form in var­i­ous stages of undress — yoga, dance and fashion.

I have to admit that I’ve taken a peek at the ads in Yoga Jour­nal. Of course, I have the excuse that I am an ama­teur pho­tog­ra­pher in love with the human body in a state of mind­ful­ness. I was attracted by the chal­lenge of cap­tur­ing advanced asana with­out dis­play­ing any naughty parts.

For any­one liv­ing in a cave dur­ing August and Sep­tem­ber last year, here are a few point­ers: Judith Han­son Lasater’s Face­book let­ter, It’s All Yoga, Baby’s por­trayal of the dis­pute no more sexy yoga ads! and toe­soxnude­gate: the fem­i­nists & kathryn budig speak up, Ele­phant Jour­nal and  JHN inter­view, or Yoga Journal’s defense with Naked Truth in response to JHN. Carol Horton’s take,  Naked Yoga Beau­ties Sell­ing Stuff! Or, the Per­sonal, the Polit­i­cal, and the Com­mod­i­fi­ca­tion of the Body.

I could not do jus­tice to the diverse per­spec­tives that came to bear on the issue, and there were many. But I’d like to come back to one aspect of the debate that did not get high­lighted.  Some com­men­ta­tors sneered at Toe­Sox because this type of sock was not “standard-​​issue” yoga gear, and was there­fore super­flu­ous to the prac­tice. Toe­Sox is merely exploit­ing yoga to flog con­spic­u­ous con­sump­tion and profit off objec­ti­fy­ing women.

I started think­ing, how­ever, that there could be valid rea­sons to use grippy sole socks:

• Mod­esty: Not every­one has feet that con­form to clas­si­cally shaped feet, or they may be sen­si­tive to ridicule or just have a bad body image. I have seen peo­ple in yoga class who insist on keep­ing their socks on, and slide around on the mat.
• Skin and nail con­di­tions: Lots of peo­ple have rea­sons to hide their feet because var­i­ous skin and nail dis­eases may dis­fig­ure their feet. These con­di­tions can be resis­tant to treat­ment. Wear­ing clean socks to class (com­bined with a fungi­cide because these socks are not the equiv­a­lent of san­i­tized latex) would shield other yogis from pos­si­ble infection.
• Slick sur­faces or slip­pery car­pets: it’s a lot eas­ier to fit a pair of socks in your carry-​​on than a yoga mat, even a travel mat. The Toe­Sox site points out that Pilates equip­ment can be slick.
• Cold feet: poor cir­cu­la­tion could make some peo­ple to bun­dle up their extrem­i­ties (Toe­Sox also sells grippy gloves). I’ve prac­ticed in a cou­ple of rooms where I wished I’d had a pair of sox because a bad draft made my mat feel as if I’d pulled it out of the refrigerator.
• Bet­ter than sneak­ers: in some gyms and fit­ness cen­ters, peo­ple prac­tice yoga in their ath­letic shoes so replac­ing sneak­ers with Toe­Sox is an improvement.

In defense of the com­pany, Toe­Sox tries to do the right thing, sup­port­ing char­i­ties like the fight against breast can­cer and sanc­tu­ar­ies for hard-​​to-​​place dogs and the Green Bus Project (an effort to share yoga and con­scious liv­ing). The com­pany uses organic cot­ton to pro­tect the environment.

I guess what I am try­ing to say is that one of the virtues of a dynamic mar­ket econ­omy is that it tends to respond to needs, even the niche demand of peo­ple who want to cover their feet (for what­ever rea­son). Who are we to cre­ate even more obsta­cles to a yoga practice?