Mamashtakeh, funny you bring up sandals because people used to wear sandals. Just check out one of Hanoch Teller’s book covers. (IIRC, It’s a Small Word After All.) Is it that people don’t wear sandals now because styles have changed, or because we have “evolved” in our understanding of what’s bekovedik? I wonder if other people out there would disenfranchise the bnei Torah of the 1930’s in their small brims and brown suits (or the bnei Torah of the ’70s and ’80s in their grey suits).
I think this topic is a bit of a crock.