Of Hobbits and Boots

[Alfirin]

Originally Posted by Inziladun

In that case, what would be the likelihood of Frodo and Sam coming across shoes or boots small enough to fit them? Orcs were generally smaller than Men, but not hobbit-sized. And outsized footwear is much more difficult to deal with than cloaks or tunics.

A valid point. I guess I've always sort of assumed (probably from all the cartoons) that hobbits had big feet for thier stature. If it was mannish footwear I could say they could cinch them in (I've always assumed that, as ME is roughly medieval level in weapons tech, they're more or less medival in clothing tech, which means most "shoes" and boots are really more like leather socks, with buskin like footwear also pretty common (which would simply require tieing the thongs tighter). But the hobnails mentioned in the Rohan chapter lead me to think orc shoes are probably pretty hard soled, similar to the standard Roman soldiers sandal (though possibly with a boot top, since I doubt orcs would leave thier toes exposed.) and those are fixed fit.