Interview: MyFriendsFeet Rich

MyFriendsFeet just passed its 20th anniversary on the Web. I hit up site owner Rich to see if we could catch up on his more than two decades of running a foot fetish site. He talks about how MyFriendsFeet got started, who some of his favorite men have been, and who he's yet to filmed but really wants to. He talks about how he weathered the challenges of the pandemic. And lots more.

How did My Friends' Feet get started?

I started thinking about creating the site in 1999. It was obviously the early days of the internet (cue dial-up modem sound effect) and there wasn’t very much content for a gay foot and tickling lover like myself to be found. I had just gotten out of business school and had the top-of-mind awareness of a student to know I represented an "underserved market" of male foot lovers. I put together a business plan and a friend lent me $8,000 to get started. It was photos only at first and then added short videos after a while. I had no experience with shooting photos or videos and it really shows in those earlier days! Thank goodness for night courses in photography. I was trying to create a space that was friendly and welcoming as opposed to dungeon-y and dark and I think the community responded well to that.

Did you think you'd end up running the site for 20 years?

There was nothing in my business plan that predicted I’d still be running the site 21 years later! The guys in the male foot and tickling community as a whole are very supportive and encouraging to each other. The support of both the foot content creators and the rest of the foot/tickling guys are without a doubt one of the main reasons I’m still in business today. There’s enough variety, creativity, and flexibility in this work to keep me interested and coming back day after day. Oh yeah, and hot guys!

You've certainly seen a lot of feet over the years, can you name three men who stand out as having the hottest feet you've ever seen?

Wow, that is hard to narrow down to only three. Off the top of my head, I can say that Alex Mecum, Connor Maguire, Damian Taylor, Leo Forte, Bruno Bernal, and Rikk York all have fantastic feet. Joey Justice and JB Iceman are two exclusive models on the site you may not have heard of with amazingly hot (and ticklish) feet too.

How about a story involving the funniest thing that every happened during a shoot?

This is a fun business with smart, creative people so honestly every day is filled with humor on the set. Filming a tickling scene is usually literally hilarious. One event that sticks out is a shoot where the model was going to get tied and tickled in a short video. Really tough, muscular guy. His hands were put in Velcro cuffs behind his back and his ankles were secured together with his bare feet exposed. He didn’t expect to be so ticklish and he tried to get up and run away as soon as I tickled his feet. Because his ankles were tied together he did a pratfall [fall on to one's buttocks]. His reaction was so sudden and unexpected and then BAM on the floor. He was fine thank goodness, and we cracked up once he brushed himself off.

Any stories about the men who got away? A couple of men you really wanted to shoot who just wouldn't agree to come into the studio.

Brad Pitt, Michael B. Jordan, and Chris Hemsworth still refuse to publicly acknowledge my requests.

Is the COVID pandemic the most challenging thing you've ever faced in your 20 years of shooting?

This year has sucked in so many ways. It’s like no other dynamic I’ve seen before. Everyone deserves to be safe at work but people want to produce content so they can pay their bills. The strain is hard on performers and producers. It has created some new ways for MyFriendsFeet to bring fresh content to the site by working with other directors, so that is one positive thing I see for my business, if I had to find a positive.

How did you get through it and keep the site going?

I opted to work with other directors around the country to produce some of my content when I wasn’t comfortable filming where I live in Florida or traveling. The adult industry would have greatly benefited from quick testing options for COVID - as would every industry, I suppose.

Are you still having fun?

Absolutely, and I can’t wait to be completely open and filming again myself.

Who do you really want to film right now?

My dream men right now are Francois Sagat and William Seed. I have a few popular MyFriendsFeet models who have retired and I’d love to have back too. Those are the REAL men that got away.

Anything new coming down the pipe.

Just getting back to filming at full speed seems revolutionary at this point. There are a few new community features that have been on the back burner I hope to launch soon, so look for them soon.

Thanks Rich, it was fun talking to you, hugs always Joe Spunk.

Read our My Friends Feet review