I have read all the threads related to the shoe carnival at many airports and have surmised the following:

Shoes do not have to be removed if:

1 - their soles are less than 1" thick

and

2 - they do not contain metal

Those two items will qualify as SOP for shoe removal.

Now, the reality is that many airports make us all remove ALL shoes (sometimes even flimsy flip flops). If that occurs and you state to the screener that your shoes do not fall into the SOP cateogry for shoe removal, but they insist on sending you to secondary screening, your recourse is:

1 - ask for a supervisor for clarification; and

2 - if that doesn't work, call over the screening manager.

Finally, make sure you fill out a complaint form and have the manager/supervisor also fill out an incident form. Do you do this while holding up the line or while you are going through secondary screening?

Now, the questions - even if shoes do not fall into the SOP category, aren't the screeners allowed to 'randomly' select pax for secondary screening? Can't that be used as an excuse for this entire shoe carnival atmosphere? If this is such a widespread problem that is obvious at so many airports, why hasn't the TSA admin done anything to increase the awareness of SOPs and require that they be followed? All that happens is longer lines and more frustrated pax due to serious inconsistencies in the approach (I've even had a supervisor tell me point blank that he doesn't care since he's quitting in two weeks and it's my problem, not his).

Seems to me that the TSA is becoming another government bureaucracy that claims its workers are following the rules, but in reality has seemingly no control over what actually happens at the airports. Does anyone really think that filing complaints and having incidents reports will accomplish anything? I'll give this approach a shot next week when I leave from CAE, which has been guilty of asking people to remove 1/2" flip flops and walk barefoot.