Airport safe shoes

If you've flown recently, you know security at the airport will ask you to put everything, sometimes even your shoes, in the plastic tub to be x-rayed. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Rick Wells has

Thursday, December 23rd 2004, 2:21 pm

By: News On 6

If you've flown recently, you know security at the airport will ask you to put everything, sometimes even your shoes, in the plastic tub to be x-rayed.

News on 6 reporter Rick Wells has found a pair of shoes, labeled airport security safe. Once upon a time going through airport security was not such a chore, but September 11th changed lots of things. Travelers now routinely empty their pockets, take off belts and jewelry and peel off jackets and sweaters and remove their shoes.

Most shoes will set off the metal detector because of a piece of steel called a shank build into the sole. I got a pair of shoes and on the box was a sticker which said "built to fly through airport security."

I took them to Dan Parker at John Daniel Footwear to find out what that meant. He said most of Allen Edmonds brand shoes, don't have that steel shank. "Their shank is made from carbon fiber, the advantage is flexibility and you can go through airport security without setting off the metal detector."

The Allen Edmonds folks developed the non-steel shank method of making shoes decades ago. It's not a response to stepped up security, just a happy coincidence and theoretically shoes that won't set off the metal detector should get you thru security faster and with your shoes on.

Thatâ€™s the good news, bad news is they don't ask what kind of shoes you have on, and they just ask you to take them off.