Do I really need dedicated shower shoes for travel?

For hostels, shared campground bathrooms, gym locker rooms, and cruise/dorm showers, yes — across the travel subreddits we read, the consensus is that any closed-pore foam or EVA slipper that drains fast is meaningfully better than going barefoot, where plantar warts and athlete's foot are the cited risks. For private hotel bathrooms it's more about comfort on cold tile than hygiene.