in someone's shoes

Idioms  

1. Also, in someone else's shoes;. Acting for another person or experiencing something as another person might; in another's position or situation. For example, If you were in my shoes, would you ask the new secretary for a date? or In your shoes I wouldn't accept the offer, or Can you go to the theater in my place? or He was speaking in her stead. The idioms alluding to shoes, with their image of stepping into someone's shoes, date from about 1700 and are generally used in a conditional clause beginning with if. Stead, dating from the 1300s, and place, from the 1500s, are used more loosely. Also see fill someone's shoes; put someone in his or her place; take someone's place.

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Example Sentences

But empathy is not so much being in someone’s shoes as having the ability to project yourself onto someone else, Farber said.

From Washington Post • Jun. 25, 2022

"We want people to watch this and feel what it was like to walk in someone's shoes."

From Salon • Aug. 20, 2021

“You could put yourself in someone’s shoes who’s been publicly humiliated,” David said.

From New York Times • Jul. 9, 2011