Do I need to put the adhesive plates on my laptop?
That depends on the laptop you are using.
The neat thing about Cool Feet is that they attach to laptops via suction cups, this make them easily removable. Â For the suction cup to work best, it must have a mirror like smooth surface, this means the Cool Feet attach naturally to white MacBooks and iBooks, but most other laptops have textured undersides in which case you will need to attach the plates. MacBook Pros have a very lightly sandblasted texture on the underside so they also require the plates for a proper suction.
The plates are transparent and barely 1mm thick so no bulk is added to your laptop.
If sticking some adhesive plates to the bottom of your laptop is still a concern but you really like cool feet, you may consider using cool feet upside down.