What kind of shoes appeared in the dream? If they were hiking boots, perhaps you long to travel and explore? If your dream shoes were shoddy, are you feeling down-trodden in waking life? If you were walking over someone in your dream, especially if you were wearing heavy clogs, is this literally true in waking life? Whose feelings are you treading on with your heavy feet? Shoes often represent your chosen way of life in dreams or the character traits developed to deal with life.
If the shoes belong to a particular role or activity, for example ballet shoes for dancers or nurses’ shoes for those in the caring professions, this may indicate a need for the qualities of that role or activity.
More generally, shoes and garters in dreams have also traditionally represented sexuality.
If you are changing boots or shoes, has there been a recent change in circumstances as in ‘the boot is on the other foot’? If you are taking off your shoes in the dream, it might suggest that you are leaving your past behind and feel open to change.
If your shoes are painful because they pinch and rub, is your freedom of movement being restricted in the waking world? Or have you been feeling a financial pinch recently? If you are wearing someone else’s shoes, your unconscious may have been urging you not to judge someone so quickly, because if you walked in their shoes you would understand how hard it is for them to make progress.
If you are walking without shoes, you may be going through a rough patch or you may simply feel like letting go of your everyday responsibilities. And because of the association between shoes, shopping and sex, dreams about shoes may also simply be erotic wish- fulfillment fantasies. In ancient dream lore, lacing up shoes in a dream was a well-known symbol of death, as were shoes on a table.
Socks in dreams often represent the cleanness or untidiness of a person, and therefore depict some kind of judgment about what sort of person they are or, if the socks are yours, how you see yourself. Socks can also be associated with warmth and protection, or with certain roles such as those that football, tennis or hiking socks represent; expressions such as ‘pull your socks up’ or ‘knocked my socks off’ suggest a motivating or powerful experience.
If the socks are full of holes in your dream, this may suggest that you feel demoralized in some way. If, however, you were waving a sock to someone, were you warning them, as might be suggested by the phrase ‘sock it to them’, or were you trying to get them to impress you, as might be suggested by ‘sock it to me’? [1]