Why the heck are cleated shoes called clipless? Clipless shoes are the ones with cleats and clips on the pedal that the cleat clips into.  So why in the world are the called clipless?
It has to do with the difference between pedals with toe clips and clipless pedals.

Pedals with Toe Clips



Clipless Pedals (and shoes)



The clipless shoes are for the clipless pedals.

The wikipedia page says the following:


  Clipless refers to the lack of an
  external toe clip, but not to
  be confused with platform pedals
  without toe clips.