Orc haute couture

[Alfirin]

What I never quite figured out was why orcs needed shoes (aragon ad co find one as part of the detritus trail left by the och who caputed Merry and Pippin. Given how thick orchish hide was I always imagined thier feet were fairly hard and horny, and pretty resistant to damage. Indeed I've alays assumed the shoe/boot wearing was for armed orcs in the Mordor Forces, "wild orch" (like the ones in the Misty mountains) likey did go barefoot (if only because being barefoot would likey give them better traction on the loose stones they would have to deal with in the mountains. Also does this mean that frodo and Sam had to find orchish boots to disguise themselves. Actually now that I think of it (Frodo and Sam may have had boots already) (Bilbo was given a pair of boots in Rivindell in the Hoobit (I was in a note to one of the illustrations Tolkein did) so Frodo and Co likey would have had the same courtesy extended to them).