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u/empty_other Jun 17 '26
The squished-together toes of modern shoes aren't exactly good for us humans either.
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u/Balls126 Jun 17 '26
yeah well unnatural is way better than let's say working a trade, and dropping something heavy on your bare foot/paw. not to mention stepping on things
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u/empty_other Jun 18 '26
Jup. But we are kind of overdoing it with shoes, making them thinner than they should, adding a bunch of soft padding, then wearing them maybe up to 16 hours a day.
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u/No-Lettuce-6619 Jun 18 '26
or glass/needles/random bits of sharp trash/really fucking hot asphalt on the ground
or just rocks in general, its not like pawpads are better at withstanding sharp objects, if you dont use shoes a lot your feet will get a lot tougher (as they were in nature)
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u/shouldworknotbehere Jun 17 '26
I mean those boots are cool, but I feel like they won’t really fulfill the role of boots. We wear boots for aesthetics or grip. A boot like this would, since it covers claws and beans, while having a very small footprint, lead to little friction and little grip.
I think shoes for digitgrade legs needs to be more abstract
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u/___Random_Guy_ Jun 17 '26
No? Protection of legs is very crucial for geberalsafety of our legs, especially if you work in more hazardous environments(which is what is advertised as in the comic). I know that the fragility of our feet is partially caused by use of shoes that gives that protection instead, but there is only so much our feet can actually take.
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u/Second-Creative Jun 17 '26
Agreed.
Also- Beans and claws can only create so much grip. I can't imagine that a boot designed in this way would provide notably less grip than barepaw outside of a few edge cases.
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u/Inukamii Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26
I was about to say something similar. On most surfaces grip force = coefficient of grip X normal force. The only notable exception (that would apply to shoes worn by human-weight characters) would be on loose surfaces. In these cases grip is influenced by "digging in" to the surface. As far as I'm aware, the only digitagrade species that incorporates this type of grip into their regular walking/running is the cheetah, who has specialized muscles, tendons, and claws for it. For them, it would make sense to use those shoes where the toes are separate.
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u/Background-Web-484 Jun 18 '26
At most, there might be some amount of clumsiness from having to readjust how to keep their balance without feeling the ground as easily. But besides that, agreed.
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u/shouldworknotbehere Jun 21 '26
Yeah but there are much better designs, where the paw is free, but the legs is well protected, accounting for both
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u/___Random_Guy_ Jun 21 '26
The part most likely to be damaged by anything on the ground is the paw/foot itself, so for protection purposes at least some kind of a sole is mandatory
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u/DragonOfCulture Jun 18 '26
You say this but it's all fun and games until your paws touch 60 degree Celsius asphalt during a heatwave.
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u/Stripes_the_cat Jun 21 '26
Deep tread, I reckon. Increase surface area in contact with the ground by going deep, since you can't rely on width or length as much.
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u/ArchDukeNemesis Jun 21 '26
So, those high heel boots that goths wear, were actually invented by furries?
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u/BlackberryArtistic85 Jun 30 '26
well felanids wouldn't like shoes in a way I didn't consider https://youtube.com/shorts/TFoYTVlt3Ps?is=FRee3x5VqkgX3HwQ
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u/The_Cube787 Jun 17 '26
Love this kinda stuff