Before someone knows your name, your job, or anything about you, there is a good chance they have already looked at your shoes and made up part of your story.

Think about it.

A perfectly clean pair of sneakers. Beat-up running shoes. Crocs. Loafers. Work boots. Designer heels. Slides that have clearly seen better days.

Each one seems to say something—even when the person wearing them has said nothing at all.

Shoes might be one of the smallest parts of an outfit, but somehow they carry a lot of information. We use them to make guesses about someone’s age, lifestyle, income, job, personality and even where they might be headed.

Someone in loafers might immediately read as polished. Someone in Jordans might be assumed to care about sneakers. A person wearing expensive designer shoes might be perceived as successful—or simply as someone who wants to look successful.

But how much of that is actually true?

That is where things get interesting.

Maybe shoes do reveal something about us, but perhaps they reveal just as much about the person doing the judging. The associations we attach to certain shoes come from culture, class, trends and the people we have learned to connect with particular styles.

Even the condition of a shoe can change the story. Fresh white sneakers can make someone look intentional, while the exact same pair covered in dirt might create an entirely different impression.

Of course, sometimes a shoe is just a shoe. The person wearing Crocs might not be laid-back. The person in designer heels might be broke. And the man in beaten-up sneakers might own the building everyone else is walking into.

Still, we look.

Maybe that is because getting dressed has always been a form of communication, whether we intend it to be or not.

So the next time someone looks you up and down, pay attention to where their eyes stop.

Before they judge the book by its cover, they might be checking the shoes.