But only a random sample of shoes were examined, and their wearers were not asked to bare their feet but merely to submit to a cloth swab rubbed along the soles.
(And let's face it, the entire series is a promotion for a commercial product - the winner's single) The Nine West press office sends Amanda Holden, a judge on Britain's Got Talent, samples of their shoes.
On Wednesday, the authorities say, the man who answered that request and agreed to sell 1,000 tons of the material arrived at Kennedy International Airport, bringing what he said were samples hidden in the soles of shoes tucked away in his luggage.
The floor of the room was covered with samples of brightly colored wood-soled shoes.
Each boutique has samples of each style available from Shoes of Prey, as well as samples of the types of leather (soft leather, snake skin, fish skin, metallic, vegan, and on, and on) to use to consider their purchase.
Geórgia Barguil, a member of the research team, which had also taken bacteria samples from shoes, wrote, "Although many of the groups found both in shoes and phones have pathogenic representatives, you should not be scared, as it does not mean that you are going to get sick".
Apart from a smattering of shoe samples, there is no physical evidence of the company's wares on the premises.
He'd stuff a large gym bag full of shoe samples and make the rounds of sporting-goods stores all over Japan, also visiting local colleges and companies that sponsored track teams.
