When men think about their feet, it’s rarely in neutral terms. Opinions can range from coy avoidance, outright disgust, or, occasionally, something approximating pride, but not quite. These insecurities can go unaddressed for a lifetime—leading, presumably, to a higher rate of toenail fungus compared to women, but also, perhaps more tragically, a dearth of embracing fun, toe-forward footwear. And yet, last summer there was no escaping the mandal. With a revival of vintage styles, it felt only logical that the oldest shoe silhouette in recorded history made a comeback too. On the first night of Paris Fashion Week, GQ’s own Samuel Hine spotted 43 pairs of Havaianas-like sandals at three runway shows. (The Brazilian brand’s parent company, Alpargatas, saw a whopping 429 percent increase in annual net profit in 2025.) Soon, the sandal revolution hit the celebrities: Jonathan Bailey bared toe in a pair of The Row flops at a London photo call for Jurassic World Rebirth; Bad Bunny, before his Tonight Show performance, stepped into a brutal New York City winter barely protected by …