Suiauthon and I had the following interesting conversation in chat.



So, this led me down an interesting path of thought. What types of footwear do your characters prefer? Do you any novel types of shoes or sandals? Is barefoot a standard in your world? What do your heroes wear while swordfighting? Do shoes exist or do they just wrap rags around their feet like vikings? Has anyone ever put any thought into this?

That chat was hilarious!
We need to finish it sometime.

In Murel, most people wear boots or sandals. One of my main characters will start out with sandals and the other with boots. In part of their quest they have to go through a very cold tundra. They decide to make winter gear including fur boots (the pair of boots and the pair of sandals weren't equipped to handle Arctic temperatures) from animals they meet on the way to the tundra. After they finish with the tundra they gladly return to their respective footwear.

P.S. "gave" should be "cave"

Most of my characters wear boots. I'm not very imaginative when it comes to clothing, and that includes the footwear.

Boots. I'm a leather boots type person. I do not like sandals.

It depends on which story I'm writing, the character's military uniforms, their money, etc.

That would depend on my characters... Dani is currently barefoot, but she'll end up wearing a pair of boots, most likely. I like the rag-wrapping idea. She might wear sandals too.

Kachel would probably wear boots.

Andam, on the other hand, would wear something along the lines of combat boots. Constantly.

What is the best footwear for journeys? What do they need to be the best they can for narrow escapes, climbing cliffs, and fighting with swords?

I usually base my fantasy costumes off of a real-world historical era (partly because I draw a blank when trying to design costumes from scratch), so usually I use period footwear. When I am just making it up, or going for a vague essence, I am fond of boots (especially tall black ones) for men and flats for women. I am also very fond of Colonial-style silver-buckle shoes, both genders.

I love tall, black leather boots. Kai and Roel wear boots like those. Tirzah goes barefoot most of the time; when she's older she wears Roman-style sandals. Klasina also wears sandals. (In the summer; in the winter boots are necessary for their climate) I don't think about footwear terribly much (tunics and dresses are more fun to figure out) but I do try to note someplace what each character wears. (even if it's just "boots" or "sandals")

So do any of you girls use boots for women? Or is it just me?

*shoots hands up* ALL OF MY GIRL ARCHERS WEAR BOOTS!!! Especially Emuna. All she wears is boots! She looks purty in boots! I use boots a lot! Okay, three sentence long ramble over! *skips away having had way too much sugar for lunch*

*laughs * Oh good! I wear boots as my primary footwear, so maybe that's why my story characters do the same...

Haha, me too. I wear a lot of boots and high-heelish shoes. So my characters typically wear boots...since they can't very well go trampling all over the world while wearing high-heels. That, and I think archers should always wear boots.

In Great Forest villages, children mostly go barefoot, but they wear warm fur-lined moccasins in the winter. Same with women. Men wear boots with hard toes to protect them from injury at their work. All the villagers' shoes go higher than their ankles, so bugs and leaves won't get in. Also to guard against snakes.
East Morancians wear...um, more regular shoes. The shoes don't need to be as high, since they live out on open plains. Children still go barefoot, but grown women don't, since that area is more "civilized", and people tend to live in large towns.
Agrothians wear sandals (they look like this), but for horse riding and for battle, men wear boots.

I like boots... but the new thigh length ones are not my thing.

See, I don't think any of my characters actually even mention their shoes... ever. I think maybe Janin did once in a very early draft and... yup. Once? Maybe? I personally wear boots if I'm wearing shoes at all. They're cool.

Boots, or tennis shoes. The Dragon wears these ninja sandal/boot hybrid things. Boots are just sturdier in essence.

My jungle boots don't fit right so they wear the skin off of my heel.

(Never having given much thought to this before, kingjon talks out of his hat. Thanks for the question.)

Characters wear shoes suitable for their occupation. Diplomats, bureaucrats, and those in palace service tend to wear either sandals or highly decorative but sturdy slippers. (The climate in the capital is such that most of the time, whether it's warm enough to wear sandals depends on how cool the person can accept his or her feet getting.) Most others wear sturdy ordinary shoes; boots are used when necessary but are not common. Some people prefer to go barefoot, but that's generally not advisable and quite uncommon.

There's one bit in a story I wrote where the POV character describes his assistant-for-the-time-being coming in as wearing boots, and then immediately thinks parenthetically "she never wore boots!" His observations of various characters are the only place I can recall ever mentioning footwear in a story.

My female MCs are barefoot, but that's only because it is what is best suited for their quest. (lots of underwater work) My guy MCs wear sandals for traveling on horseback, and boots for walking around the city.

Wouldn't you want boots for horseback as well?

eru

I call them sandals... they are more like another kind of boot. Their boots are metal-tipped, and since they ride bare-backed the added weight to their feet makes balance harder.

Hmm... I always found heavier shoes helped my balance when I rode bareback. Might be just me...

I seems to me also that heavier shoes would improve balance...

Whatever. You can ignore me, I was just hypothesizing... I know nothing about horseback...

And this isn't written into the novel, I just said it was like that (in my head) for development and consistency... **shrugs**

I should have asked someone like you, Bushy, about it first.

*laughs* No worries! It may make sense for someone with shortI stand corrected... legs, actually...

Feel free to ask me about things like this if you ever need to again, Elanhil.

WHAT?!?! O.o

O.O You don't have legs, Aussie?!?!

Hoo boy, what a missing word does to one's sentence. Let me correct that for you: SHORT legs, good people! Short legs!

Oh, wooh! You had me worried!

Sorry Airi dear! Don't worry: I most definitely have legs, and they work.

*wipes brow *

Anyone use wooden shoes?

I was GONNA say... My thought process went like this:

"What?? She doesn't have legs?? "
"How, then, did she mention wearing shoes?"
"Maybe on her hands?"
"How does one horseback-ride without legs and with shoes on their hands?"

That's gotta be the typo of the century...

I might just have made a worse typo...

*chuckles ruefully* I'm happy to take the title. Only I would make a typo like that. (And no, your typo was not worse )

*allows the thread to get back on topic*

You do realize that the :* smiley is a kissing smiley?? O.o

But anyways... **cough, cough** Yes, back on topic.

*chuckles* If it were me you did it to, I would not have noticed it unless you drew my attention to it, since the * symbol is so often used to fix a typo.

*back on topic* I've never explored the idea of shoes in my fictitious world. I guess for a medieval setting, I should probably describe them a little more in depth... should probably do some research on it.

I haven't started writing yet, but when I do, I think pretty much everyone will wear boots all the time.