I just don't get it

I saw these all over Nashville when I was down there and have seen maybe a pair or two here in DC as well.

They are just hideous. They look like shower shoes -- ya' know, the kind you wear so you won't get athlete's foot? Or maybe for gardening. No self-respecting urbane woman would be caught wearing them in the city.

It had to have been a tourist sporting them here.

(yes, I AM a snob...about certain things)