Barefoot Cartoon Animal

aka: Barefoot Funny Animals

Wherever she's taking him, it's not the shoe store.

"I hate bullfights! I never eat beef! I'm a vegetarian! I don't even wear shoes!"

— Roger Rabbit, "Rollercoaster Rabbit"

Funny Animals have differing levels of clothing, sometimes even between different characters in the same work. You've got your Accessory Wearing Cartoon Animals, who are basically naked except for one or two token items. There are also Half Dressed Cartoon Animals, who wear a shirt or pants, but not both. There are even Fully Dressed Cartoon Animals who have complete outfits. And then there's the subject of this article — cartoon animals who are almost fully clothed by human standards, but who go barefoot (or bare-pawed, if you want to get technical). These are furry characters who don't just remove their footwear for specific occasions (like sleeping or swimming), but go barefoot all the time, even during activities where humans would normally wear shoes — walking around town, working, shopping, going on adventures, etc.

As the sheer number of examples demonstrates, this is a common trope in works featuring funny animals. Here are some possible reasons:

• The trope may be Justified by the characters having hooves, large claws, or oddly-shaped hind paws which it would be difficult for shoes to accommodate.
• The trope may also be Justified by the characters being from a culture where shoes aren't seen as a social requirement, such as with J. R. R. Tolkien's hobbits, or are from a civilization that Prefers Going Barefoot as a part of its cultural code.
• There's another possible explanation for this, more or less based in Rule of Perception: Generally, anthropomorphic animals (especially of the Beast Man variety) have essentially human anatomy except for their heads, tails, and (in most cases) feet, so keeping all three of those elements exposed emphasizes their animal qualities and prevents them from appearing too human. (It's not unreasonable to think, for example, that long pants made for anthropomorphic animals would have long sleeves to accommodate their tails as well, but strangely, almost nobody ever depicts such a thing.)
• Shoes can be deceptively complex to draw and people often don't pay much attention to them anyway. This is especially true for modern tennis shoes, which usually have multiple colors, complex textures, and logos. In many art styles, paws are actually far less complicated to draw. See Furries Are Easier to Draw.

Spats without shoes or socks count as this trope because they do not cover the soles of the feet. These may also indicate that the funny animal who wears them is particularly wealthy.

The One Who Wears Shoes is about inversions of this trope, especially Civilized Animals and Funny Animals who use footwear when going barefoot is normal for the setting.

Barefoot cartoon animals are usually of the Funny Animal or Beast Man tier, but any tier of the Sliding Scale of Anthropomorphism can apply.

A lot of Accessory Wearing Cartoon Animals and Half Dressed Cartoon Animals also happen to be barefoot; to keep things cleaner, this page only covers barefoot characters who are otherwise properly-dressed.

This trope also applies to any non-human character, such as aliens and monsters.

Most of these characters have Humanlike Foot Anatomy.

Sub-Trope of Appropriate Animal Attire.

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Example subpages:

• Western Animation

Other examples:

Advertising

• In 1963, A&W Restaurants introduced Rooty the Great Root Bear, a mascot who wore only an orange sweater. 60 years later, they added a pair of jeans to his outfit, but no shoes.
• The Boubin Bear for Boubin Automotive Service. His wardrobe includes a hat, vest, and jeans, but no shoes (or shirt). He holds his jeans up and tips his hat while saying "It's the bear facts, folks!"
• The live-action chimp office workers from the mid 2000s CareerBuilder.com commercial package were dressed in business wear with the absence of shoes.
• Peter Panda, the cartoon panda mascot of the classic Child World toy store would often go back and forth between wearing shoes and not wearing them, but is otherwise fully clothed in a striped T-Shirt and overalls with his name on them.
• Coco the Monkey from Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies cereal sports a t-shirt, blue jeans and a blue baseball cap, but no shoes.
• Chip the Wolf from Cookie Crisp cereal initially had a red jacket and blue slacks, but no shoes.
• Dannon's Danimals yogurt ads:
  • Anook the polar bear has a light blue and white snowboarder outfit and goggles, but no snow boots.
  • Hollywood the alligator sports a blue and green t-shirt, dark blue board shorts and a pair of sunglasses, but no shoes.
• During a short time in the mid-to-late '80s, Purina Fit & Trim dog food featured a cartoon basset hound in exercise clothes, barefoot jogging in place.
• Fruit Brute the werewolf wears a white t-shirt and rainbow overalls, but no shoes.
• Birdie the Early Bird, one of the McDonaldland characters, wears overalls and goggles, but no shoes. Justified Trope since footwear would just get in the way of her using her talons.
• Bil Mar Farms' Mr. Turkey, from the self-titled line of turkey products, was known for being "The best dressed turkey in town." He wore a tuxedo and top hat, but no shoes..
• Nesquik Bunny was originally an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal but, even in costume, he was barefoot. A later version of him became a Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal.
• Mo the Bovine from MooTown Snacks wears a t-shirt and shorts without any shoes.
• Dammy, beaver mascot for Ontario Power Generation, wears a red plaid shirt, blue jeans and a green vest.
• Unilever's Heartbrand line of assorted ice cream bars features as one of its mascots a barefoot toon lion named Max (aka The Paddle Pop Lion), who initially wore a safari shirt and khaki shorts. Max has made appearances on the Miko Motta Max brand ice cream in France as well as the Streets Paddle Pop brand in Australia and New Zealand.
• The original Racin' Rat from the self-titled Tyco RC toy car line did not wear shoes in his first animated commercial.
• Ozzie, an anthro feline mascot and disc jockey, from the network Radio AAHS, wore typical '90s clothes, complete with a backwards cap and baggy pants, but no shoes.
• Of the members of the Otter Pops, Anita Fruit Punch wears a rash guard top, beach shorts, and a sun visor, but no shoes.
• Although he usually didn't have a costume, Sambo's Restaurant mascot The Tiger was featured in a sports coat and light color trousers, but no shoes. on some of their Tiger Club spots.
• Animated ads for the COPD medication Symbicort have the Big Bad Wolf living in a world of anthro wolves who do not wear shoes but are otherwise fully dressed.
• The current design of Teddy, the teddy bear mascot for Nabisco's Teddy Grahams snack products. Teddy has for his new outfit a blue and white striped T-shirt with blue jeans, but no shoes.
• Sometimes, the Trix Rabbit's disguise will include a full set of clothes, but no shoes.
• Der Wienerdog, a former dachshund mascot for Wienerschnitzel, had a splashy red-and-yellow outfit with striped pants and a cape, but no shoes.
• Local Cleveland radio station WMMS-FM has a vulture mascot that wears a t-shirt and blue jeans without shoes. He is known only as The Buzzard.
• The Silentnight Beds Hippo wears blue and white striped pajamas without shoes.
• Inflammation, the Anthropomorphic Personification of "dry eye" and other causes of ocular irritation in ads for Xiidra eye drops. He's an Ugly Cute imp-like creature who wears a Fun T-Shirt with his name on it, a vest, and pants without shoes.

Anime & Manga

• Natori, an anthropomorphic feline adviser from Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns, wears a long purple coat that extends to his lower hind legs (thus covering his entire torso), with no footwear below.
• Taomon and Doumon from Digimon Tamers, fox people in the Renamon line, are both fully clothed in onmyōji getup, except for the paws.
• Freeza, one of the Big Bads of Dragon Ball, and his father King Cold are two alien examples. They wear sci-fi battle uniforms, but no shoes like the other characters. Of course, their feet wouldn't really fit into most shoes.
• Many characters from Fairy Tail belonging to the feline Exceed race go barefoot despite otherwise wearing full outfits, notably Carla (until the Edolas Arc, where she started wearing either shoes or pantyhose on a more consistent basis) and Queen Shagotte. There are some exceptions though, such as Panther Lily (who tends to be a Walking Shirtless Scene), Lector (who wears a vest but no pants), and Happy (who is usually an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal, but occasionally wears full outfits).
• Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics normally employed Talking Animals, but The Marriage of Mrs. Fox featured a whole town of anthropomorphic foxes (and one cat) that were fully clothed, except for a lack of shoes.
• Zorori the fox from Kaiketsu Zorori, in his regular traveling outfit, wears traditional Japanese peasant clothing (shirt, pants, cloak, Asian conical hat) but goes barefoot. Comparatively, his prankster outfit is fully outfitted with boots.
• Blinky and Pinky from The Noozles, as well as the other koala characters, do not wear shoes
• One Piece: Tony Tony Chopper, a reindeer who can shift at will between various more-or-less-anthropomorphic forms, tends to be about as fully-dressed as any of the human crew depending on circumstances (often skipping a shirt in hot weather, etc), but he always skips footwear even when fully clothed otherwise.
• Played for Drama in The Promised Neverland. At first, the kids think Mujika is another human, but when they see her six-toed monster foot peeking out from under her cloak, they realize she's actually one of the creatures known as "demons".
• Lop, the bunny-like alien from the Star Wars: Visions segment "Lop and Ochō", goes barefoot.

Asian Animation

• In Harry and Bunnie, Bunnie and Katty wear full outfits except for shoes.
• Most of the characters in Our Friend Xiong Xiao Mi, including the five main characters, are anthropomorphic animals who do not wear shoes.
• Almost none of the anthropomorphic animal characters in Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf wear shoes, with the exception of the goats themselves.

Comic Books

• In American Born Chinese, The Monkey King is prevented from entering the celestial dinner party because he wears no shoes, whereupon he strives to make himself more human-like in his dress and appearance. It's notable that many of the other animals who were let in, like dragons and fish, actually wear worse shoes.
• Sam Simeon, the gorilla gumshoe of Angel and the Ape fame, usually appears shoeless in a suit and tie.
• Gary Hampton, the main protagonist of The Astounding Wolf-Man, wears a combat suit with open-toed foot coverings while in his werewolf form.
• Although the titular heroes of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew! wear full superhero uniforms, some of the background characters are either barefoot (but otherwise completely clothed) or half-dressed.
• The Croconoids from the first Clem Hetherington book. They're fully-dressed except for their lack of shoes.
• The anthro characters in Extinctioners usually go barefoot despite being fully-clothed otherwise. While the heroes originally had regular boots as part of their uniforms, in later designs they switch to toeless boots a la the cast of Naruto.
• Some characters from Fritz the Cat wear clothes without shoes. Fritz himself is a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal.
• Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy and its various adaptations. His default outfit is a space adventurer suit that leaves his hindpaws exposed.
• Howard the Duck was originally a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal, but when Disney complained about his (alleged) resemblance to Donald Duck, he was given pants (but not shoes).
• Honey Bunny of Looney Tunes comic books, the precursor to Lola Bunny. Like her successor, she's a barefooter but otherwise fully clothed.
• Sylvester Shyster from the Mickey Mouse comics has appeared with a long overcoat, crooked top hat and spats on his feet. More recent incarnations of the character have appeared fully clothed with shoes.
• The cast of Omaha the Cat Dancer are fully clothed but barefoot. However, their feet appear atypically human for anthro animals, looking less like paws than three-toed human feet.
• Sam the dog from Sam & Max: Freelance Police dresses like a cop from The '50s, wearing a fedora and old-fashioned suit, but forgoes footwear.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
  • Several characters go barefoot, including a fair portion of the main cast (Rotor, Bunnie pre-and-post-roboticization, Dulcy, Nicole when in furry form, even Tails when he was very little) and a great deal of minor and background characters (Rosemary Prower, the alien Ceneca-9009). Official, straight-from-the-game characters generally end up as the ones who wear shoes in all cases, albeit not the only ones.
  • After the second Genesis Wave that began Sonic the Hedgehog/Mega Man: Worlds Collide effectively rebooted the universe, everyone who had previously regularly gone barefoot now regularly wears shoes, including Rotor, Nicole and Bunnie (who regained her robotic limbs, but whose robotic feet now look more like white, pink-striped boots). However, another barefooter, a Fish Person named Coral the Betta, was introduced later on, in issue #260, as part of a Sonic Unleashed adaptation.
• Spider-Man: The Lizard, the Superpowered Evil Side of scientist Curt Connors. The Lizard's usual outfit consists of a tattered lab coat, a black shirt, purple pants, and bare feet.
• In The Spiffy Adventures of McConey, Lapinot has long rabbit paws and does not wear shoes, unlike the other characters.
• The entire cast of Sunnyville Stories; nobody wears shoes, but they do wear clothing.
• Gill Girl from the 2003 Teen Titans Go! comic wears only a bathing suit. Hardly surprising, considering that she's a Fish Person with webbed feet.
• The anthropomorphic animals of Tooth and Claw don't wear shoes, even though some have human-like feet.

Comic Strips

• P.T. Bridgeport, the fast-talking show-bear of the classic Pogo series, eventually became this during the latter half of his tenure. He started out with a partial barker's outfit consisted of a hat, a coat, necktie, white gloves, and spats, but no shoes. A wardrobe upgrade in later years included a shirt, a splashy vest and some trousers. He still wore his spats barefoot in the comics and other published works. Also applicable to this trope are feline hillbillies Wiley Catt and Simple J. Malarkey. Barnstable Bear (who usually just wears pants and a checkered cap) had a few seasonal outfits that fit this trope as well.

Fan Works

• This becomes a Discussed Trope in the Crossover fanfic Basil's American Tail, which brings together The Great Mouse Detective and An American Tail. Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal Basil of Baker Street reviews one of the cultural differences between British and American mice with his new friend, Nellie Brie:
  Basil: I don't know what it is with you Americans and your aversion to shoes.
  Nellie: Oh don't be such a snob. Besides, shoes are for humans.
  Basil: I'll have you know that every good detective needs a nice pair of shoes if they want to make their footprints less identifiable.
  • Later, Basil finds himself forced to admit to Nellie that "being in our natural barefoot state does have its advantages when you're climbing about."
    • The trope is also mentioned in the sequel, Olivia Goes West:
      "[Olivia] had trouble walking down the road barefoot, being pained by little pebbles. She didn't know how Fievel did it."
• In the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers fan comic Of Mice and Mayhem, Foxglove the bat (who doesn't wear clothes in canon) now wears a tank top and cargo pants, but remains barefoot.

Films — Animation

• The White Rabbit and Bill the lizard from Disney's Alice in Wonderland, who are otherwise fully-dressed in formal and casual attire respectively, lack footwear.
• The majority of the mice from An American Tail lack shoes, yet are otherwise fully dressed (the cats tend to be straight-up Half Dressed Cartoon Animals).
• The titular character of Arlo the Alligator Boy wears a shirt and pants, but no shoes.
• From Beauty and the Beast, the Beast's paws are too large for him to wear shoes.
• Most of the animal characters in Cats Don't Dance don't wear any shoes.
• All of the characters in Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness are anthro animals who are fully dressed but are otherwise barefoot.
• Most of the characters from Chicken Little go about barefoot, even on concrete surfaces.
• Rat characters Nick and Fetcher from Chicken Run wear business suits without shoes.
• All of the animal cast from Fantastic Mr. Fox, with the exceptions of Kris, Coach Skip and the Beaver's unnamed son don't wear any shoes.
• Globehunters: An Around The World In 80 Days Adventure: Three of the four Rastafarian Cat Girls that Eddie, Sasha, and Trevor encounter on the ship don't wear shoes.
• The Big Bad Wolf from Hoodwinked!, of which he initially wore just a blue hoodie in the first movie, added a pair of pants to his wardrobe for the sequel. He still goes barefoot though.
• Most of the supporting animal characters in the Kung Fu Panda franchise are barefooters. So are some of the main characters, such as Sixth Ranger Zhen and Big Bad the Chameleon in Kung Fu Panda 4. The panda villagers in Kung Fu Panda 3 are particularly notable, as they make the main character Po just about the only panda who does wear shoes.
• Stitch from Lilo & Stitch was first seen wearing an orange jumpsuit while he is in "alien mode" and is otherwise barefoot. Other alien characters such as Dr. Jumba Jookiba, the Grand Councilwoman, and Gantu wear full outfits except for footwear, as their abnormal foot anatomy probably wouldn't allow for it anyway.
• Lola Bunny and Speedy Gonzales in Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run. Lola wears a blue knee-length dress with gold highlights. Speedy wears his usual white outfit, described in his own entry. Neither of them wear shoes.
• A few incarnations of the Wolf Man have appeared fully clothed yet barefoot in some animated movies such as Mad Monster Party?, Monster Mash and Hotel Transylvania.
• Celia from Monsters, Inc. is a variation; she has tentacles instead of feet, and her only clothing is a dress that reaches to where her knees would be.
• In Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Mr. Peabody is usually an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal, but his period costumes when he's Time Traveling fall into either this category or Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal; he wears era-appropriate outfits, but continues going barefoot. The only time he's shown with footwear is when he goes ice skating with Sherman in the memories montage.
• Many of the residents of Klugtown in My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) run the gamut of either having full outfits that lack footwear or being Half Dressed Cartoon Animals. Verko, the rat-like crime boss that Capper nearly sells the Mane Six to, falls into the former category.
• J. Worthington Foulfellow and Gideon from Pinocchio are mostly fully-dressed, but they don't wear shoes (although their outfits include spats).
• The female aliens from Planet 51 wear full outfits that don't include shoes. The males wear nothing below the waist.
• Some of the mouse characters from The Rescuers are fully clothed except for shoes, though the leads are Half Dressed Cartoon Animals. Bernard first appears as one, wearing a red sweater, a red cap, and blue overalls rather like Mario.
• Some of the cast from Robin Hood (1973), including Lady Kluck, Alan-a-Dale, the churchmice, and the rabbit family, wear medieval outfits that don't include footwear. For everyone except Kluck, this trope probably overlaps with Barefoot Poverty.
• The anthro characters in Rock Dog wear clothes, and many of them are fully dressed. However, there are several barefooters in the cast, including Bodi, Khampa, Angus, The Grizzly, and the sheep villagers. This might be because they're all from a rural environment except The Grizzly, who is basically a Mixed Martial Arts fighter.
• Most of the rats from The Secret of NIMH wear medieval outfits without footwear, although their elderly leader Nicodemus is The One Who Wears Shoes. The other animal characters are either half-dressed or fully naked.
• Most of the trolls in, well, the Trolls franchise. They normally wear full outfits without shoes, although there are a few exceptions.
• The singing hound dog from Bill Plympton's The Tune wears an Elvis Presley costume during his music number, though it doesn't come with shoes.
• Valentino the goat from Wish (2023) is an extremely rare example of a non-anthropomorphic animal who falls under this, wearing a yellow jumpsuit.
• Zootopia takes place in a World of Funny Animals who go barefoot but are otherwise fully clothed. Even characters who have some form of footwear (such as Judy Hopps and the other cops, who have foot coverings on their police uniforms, and Mr. Big, who wears spats) have their toes uncovered. The only exception is Gazelle, who is The One Who Wears Shoes.

Films — Live-Action

• As in other media, Rocket Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) wears a space adventurer outfit but has bare paws. However, in Avengers: Endgame, he wears a pair of boots with his uniform, graduating to Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal.
• The live-action film adaptation of Howard the Duck features the main character (who was a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal in the original comic) wearing suit and pants without shoes.
• Lola Bunny from Space Jam wears more clothing than most Looney Tunes animals (either her street clothes or a Tune Squad uniform), but she's still a barefooter. The other furry characters who wear Tune Squad uniforms don't bother with footwear either. This is lampshaded when Michael Jordan asks if the toons have a pair of basketball shoes he could borrow —- cut to a few shots of the toons' feet. The furry Looney Tunes continue this tradition in Space Jam: A New Legacy.
• Some of the aliens from the Star Wars films go barefoot, notably Yoda and Jar Jar Binks.
• Whenever Ted wears clothes in the 2 movies and TV series, his outfit never includes shoes. Justified because he's a stuffed toy.

Literature

• Some of the mice from the original Angelina Ballerina book series and the first cartoon series.
• The animal characters from The Bad Guys series of books. The main protagonists (Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake and Mr. Shark) all wear black suits, including trousers, but no shoes.
• The cast of the Basil of Baker Street series, in stark contrast with its Animated Adaptation The Great Mouse Detective.
• Bendemolena and her feline siblings from the storybook The Cat Who Wore a Pot On Her Head.
• Corduroy (from the book of the same name) was a stuffed teddy bear who wore green corduroy overalls.
• The Feas, the vaguely cat-like aliens from the Destined to Lead series.
• Frog and Toad from the respective book series.
• In the Geronimo Stilton series and most of its Spin Offs^note The Spacemice Series is an exception, most of the characters are barefoot but otherwise clothed, with a few characters (most notably Pinky Pick) being The One Who Wears Shoes. Subverted in the books starring the Thea Sisters; they and their supporting cast start out barefoot like everyone else, but come to be portrayed as Fully Dressed Cartoon Animals later in the series.
• Mitcho (a cat) and Sebastian (an elephant) from the Danish children's book The Giant Pear and its Animated Adaptation.
• Richie, the fox pup, from Hilda and Richie is not shown wearing shoes, though he wears a shirt and pants.
• Civilized Animal Mouse from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie wears a set of blue-green overalls without shoes.
• I Need A Wee: One background cat wears overalls and no shoes.
• The cast of Joe Carrot, the self-titled Italian book series about a rabbit private detective.
• Speaking of, Kenny Rabbit from the fantasy adventure Kenny And The Dragon also applies here with his plaid flannel shirt and green shorts.
• The Berenstain Bears are generally seen shoeless. Professor Actual Factual actually wears spats on his feet.
• Most characters from Mercer Mayer's Little Critter and Critters of the Night series of books, though averted completely in LC and the Critter Kids.
• The cast of Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama books and their Animated Adaptation. The title character's signature look includes a set of overalls.
• In The Mouse Watch, the default for the mouse and rat characters is that they wear full outfits that don't include shoes.
• Paddington Bear starts out wearing an oversized hat a big blue overcoat in the original books and their film and television adaptations, but still has bear feet. That is, until he gets a pair of wellington boots for Christmas in Paddington Marches On, which quickly became part of his Iconic Outfit because they allowed the soft toys to stand upright.
• Mr. Tod, the dapper fox from the classic Peter Rabbit book series.
• Little Pookie, a piglet in overalls, from the Pookie Books series by Sandra Boynton.
• The Foxen from The Red Vixen Adventures.
• Richard Scarry's works, with the one exception of Lowly the Worm, the one character who has no feet.
  • This factor was lampshaded in an episode of the animated Busytown Mysteries while identifying a footprint.
• The anthro mouse characters from Sandy Clifford's The Roquefort Gang, adapted into an episode of the 1980s series CBS Storybreak.
• Most of the animal characters created by Rosemary Wells.
• Sheila Rae, the Brave: All of the characters are mice or rats, and none of them wear shoes despite being otherwise fully-dressed.
• Who Wet My Pants: Reuben, Bigfoot, the dog, and the hippo all wear scout outfits without shoes.

Live-Action TV

• Many characters from Between the Lions.
• Chelli the patchwork dog from Big Bag.
• The cast from Germany's Käpt'n Blaubär.
• Most of the cast from Dinosaurs. Though not always shown from the waist down, B.P. Richfield does wear suspenders most of the time. Fran Sinclair also qualifies (except for the rare occasions when she wears fuzzy slippers).
• The Fraggles from Fraggle Rock, who are generally Half Dressed Cartoon Animals. (Uncle Traveling Matt is The One Who Wears Shoes, presumably because they go with his Adventurer Outfit.)
• The title character from the puppet series Harry the Bunny.
• Cling and Clang from H.R. Pufnstuf.
• Raunchy from Lidsville.
• The Bookmice from Canada's The Magic Library.
• Animal, Beauregard the janitor and Uncle Deadly from The Muppets. Animal sports a red and yellow shirt, tattered pants, and an iron collar, but no shoes. Beau, who wears a white cap, gray trousers and a plaid shirt, is fully-dressed but also lacks shoes, as shown in The Great Muppet Caper. Uncle Deadly wears a dark Victorian suit with spats, and of course no shoes.
• Polkaroo from The Polka Dot Door.
• The Pajanimals. Justified since they're only ever seen in pajamas.
• The Reppies, a dinosaur band who dressed like typical rock stars, except for footwear.
• Most of the non-human Muppets from Sesame Street.
• The cast from Swamp Critters.
• This is a Discussed Trope in the Today's Special episode "Shoes". Muffy Mouse explains that she and other mice go barefoot because they need to be quiet to live in houses where people don't know they're there. In the climactic song when the other characters sing about their shoes, her line is: "I'm the only one without a pair, that's 'cause my feet would rather be bare!"
• As in the original comic, Dr. Pogo from the Live-Action Adaptation of The Umbrella Academy.
• In The Wild Wild West episode "The Night of the Tycoons" an Organ Grinder's monkey, wearing a chimp-sized Union army uniform without shoes, is used as a bomb-throwing Animal Assassin.
• Bo from Wimzie's House.

Pinball

• Mousin' Around!: Every mouse seen in the game's artwork wears a shirt, pants, and at least one accessory - but no shoes.

Tabletop Games

• Being based on 80s Heroic Fantasy novels and cartoons, the Wilderkind of The Chronicles of Aeres are always depicted going about barefooted in the artwork, and it's even noted in the setting's lore that they prefer to not use shoes, thanks to their paw-like feet.
• Crimestrikers is set on Creaturia, a World of Anthropomorphic Animals where going barefoot while otherwise clothed is the norm. The only exceptions are the villains who wear Powered Armor (Forster Burns) or full body disguises (Commander Ahab, The Righteous One), and the robots.

Theatre

Video Games

• Most of the animal villagers from the Animal Crossing series who aren't Half Dressed Cartoon Animals tend to wear outfits that don't include footwear (with some exceptions, such as Flick, Harvey, Isabelle (as of New Horizons), and Digby). One wonders how Kicks the Skunk (an NPC who sells shoes) makes a living when his only potential customers are the players and the aforementioned exceptions.
• Several anthro characters from Awesomenauts wear outfits that lack shoes, including Penny Fox^note Except for her cheerleader outfit., Froggy G, Dizzy (though she does wear spats), and Rocco.
• Most of the animal denizens of Bound by Blades forgoes shoes. Of the three playable heroes, Teo the feline swordsman and Guren the rabbit archer are shoeless and can obtain footwear later in the game, but Kota the bovine brawler wears boots by default.
• Code Name: S.T.E.A.M mostly stars humans, but has one Funny Animal with Lion; while he's wearing some sort of metal anklets, he doesn't wear shoes, presumably because his feet are digitigrade (his heels don't lie on the ground).
• Boki, the player character from Copy Kitty, doesn't wear shoes. Crystal-encased feet are almost shoes, but that's just natural Kitera anatomy.
• In Disney Speedstorm, Figment wears an outfit that covers both the top and bottom halves of his body (unlike in Journey into Imagination in which he usually only wears a shirt or nothing at all), but still doesn't wear shoes.
• The beast races in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, the Khajiit and the Argonians, are unable to wear shoes because their feet are bigger and differently shaped. This also extends to helmets; they can't wear anything that covers their whole face. It then got subverted in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, where they are able to do just that.
  • The reason is that Bethesda, wanting the beast races to be more exotic, gave them digitigrade feet (along with turning the Khajiit from the Ohmes found in Arena-Daggerfall to the Suthay-raht in Morrowind) as opposed to the plantigrade feet they would later receive in Oblivion and Skyrim.
• The titular hero of Fin and the Ancient Mystery is an anthropomorphic fennec fox who doesn't wear any shoes, just a black kimono and red belt.
• Milla Basset from Freedom Planet is the the only (known) cast member to go barefoot; her description in this art of her notes "she has a strong connection to the earth" alongside her distaste for shoes, implying her to be an Earthy Barefoot Character. Considering this is from a cast full of Fully Dressed Cartoon Animals, this would also make her an inversion of The One Who Wears Shoes.
• Zigzagged Trope in Fuga: Melodies of Steel. Some characters wear shoes (Malt, Kyle, Boron, Socks, and Britz), while others don't, while otherwise being fully dressed (Mei, Hanna, the Montblanc twins, Sheena, Jin and Wappa). This also applies to the NPC villagers, as seen in the artbook that comes with the Deluxe Edition. Members of both the Gasco Army and Berman Empire all have some kind of footwear, however.
• The player character in the Game & Watch game Egg is a bipedal fox with White Gloves, pants, and no shoes.
• Pretty much the entire cast from the anthropomorphic animal video game High Seas Havoc, including the main protagonist, is lacking in the footwear department despite otherwise being fully-dressed.
• The "morphs" from Inherit the Earth, bipedal animals who talk, wear clothes and live in civilizations like humans once did, don't bother with any footwear.
• In Jazz Jackrabbit, Lori Jackrabbit wears a purple top and shorts, but goes barefoot. Jazz himself is usually an Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal who wears only a bandana, but comes under this trope when his outfit includes pants.
• Jitsu Squad averts this for all the characters except Jazz Amun, a frogman who ditches footwear. Though it's less this trope and more because the players used to be human warriors before a curse turned them into animals, and Jazz used to be a Buddhist Monk (known for forgoing shoes) before he's turned into a frog-man.
• In King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride, the trolls don't wear shoes. This extends to Rosella when she's turned into one during Chapter 2, although her shoes magically reappear on her feet when she changes back.
• Latch from Lethal League is modestly-dressed for a crocodile, bearing a hoodie, some sweatpants and a beanie cap, but leaves his hands and feet bare. Justified in that he then uses his exposed sharp claws to hang onto walls.
• Rocket Raccoon's outfit in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 covers everything on his body except his head, his tail, and his hind paws.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Inverted, since most of the characters wear nothing but shoes and gloves. (Some of the characters, such as Ix, Charmy, and most females do wear actual clothes, but also have shoes and gloves.)
  • Played straight with almost every single player character in Sonic's Schoolhouse. All are anthropomorphic animals, all but the kangaroo are fully-dressed (the kangaroo lacks pants), none of them wear any footwear. Due to the first-person viewpoint, though, you have to play two-player to realize this.
• Player characters in Toontown Online start without shoes, but can buy some at a later point.
• TY from Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is one of the few main characters in the series who doesn't wear shoes. He's also somehow capable of grinding on rails.
• Several characters from Undertale wear clothes but not shoes, including Toriel, Dr. Alphys, Toriel's husband King Asgore, Asriel, many of the minor monsters, and some minibosses. Lampshaded with Toriel where you can go into her bedroom and discover a sock drawer, despite the fact that she never wears them.
  • Ralsei and Noelle from the sister game, Deltarune, also go barefoot. This is not apparent with Ralsei during Chapter 1 as his body is in shadow from his outfit, also obscuring the fact he is a goat boy, but Chapter 2 makes it unmistakable. For the deer girl Noelle, it's hard to tell at a glance, but her Berdly-shaking sprite depicts cloven hooves at the bottom of her legs, and if you decline the offer of a "free sample" from the Cyber Shoes II store in Chapter 2, she'll comment that "[she doesn't] really do... shoes. (At least not unless they're custom-made...)". Toby Fox's sketches of Noelle further reaffirm the idea, explicitly depicting her with hooved feet (without being a joke doodle like some of the other sketches featured). Both characters are otherwise fully-dressed.
• Unlike his partner Dribble, Spitz from WarioWare doesn't have shoes to go with his blue jumpsuit.

Visual Novels

• The cast of Echo wears clothes but not shoes.

Web Animation

• Bethany and Bob from Game Dogs go barefoot but wear full outfits otherwise. This gets outright surreal in episode 8 when Jennifer mentions Bethany's shoes — after we just saw Bethany walk through the door barefoot. And the punchline is that they're out of style. Judging from Bethany's reaction to the remark ("Oh... I see what you did there"), Jennifer intended it as a Stealth Insult.
• Happy Tree Friends: Every character except Cuddles (who wears bunny slippers), Disco Bear (who wears disco shoes) and Russell (who doesn't have feet, wearing peg legs in their place).
• Helluva Boss:
  • Loona wears a half-shirt, pants, and socks that leave her paws uncovered due to her digitigrade stance.
  • While the exact level of clothing varies, including cases of being half dressed or accessory wearing, the animal-type Cherubim are consistently shown as barefoot.
• Katzun always draws his characters as animals, clothed except for their shoes. However, in his animations he is also likely to take the shortcut of drawing Long Pants instead.
• Pocket from Trick Moon wears a hoodie, a shirt and shorts, but no shoes.
• The cast of True Tail are fully-clothed barefooters, except for the pantless Brutus and a few characters who wear Judy Hopps-style toeless boots.

Webcomics

• In By the Tail the furry characters wear clothes, but not shoes.
• Avania: Avian, Equine, and Hequevar characters generally wear lower leg coverings of some kind such as canvas spats or leather gaiters, which leave the soles of their feet exposed. Full shoes do also exist in the setting, however, as Lieutenant Viktoria Lanius is seen wearing high heels while dressed in civilian clothing. Equine agent Valenvarius also laments not having his farrier fit him for full shoes appropriate for a rocky environment.
• Felix O'Connel from Cloudscratcher usually goes barefoot, even though Ixia was able to get a pair of shoes from his closet when she needed a change of clothes, and he still had a pair for when he went into the city. Word of God is that he Prefers Going Barefoot in the same way that a human might. It was also presumably common in the old Avian Empire. Of the three birds whose feet have been in frame, only one was wearing sandals.
• Clothes in general are a rare sight in Crossed Claws, but of the only characters who do wear clothes, Jered the rabbit and Claudia the mouse, their outfits don't include shoes.
• All the members of Species X from DNA go barefoot, probably because the scientists who are raising them don't bother to give them shoes.
• In Drop-Out, Lola has no feet, just blunt-ended legs, and can't wear shoes. Sugar usually does, but goes barefoot at home and at one point forgets that she isn't barefoot during the journey, accidentally kicking something when trying to pick it up with her thumbed tarsier foot.
• The main characters of Forestdale are furry kids who wear full outfits without shoes. However, the adults dress this way as well.
• The Lycans from Foxy Flavored Cookie are anthropomorphic furries who don't wear shoes but are otherwise fully clothed.
• The characters of Furry Fight Chronicles zigzag between wearing shoes or being barefoot depending on their physiology or preference.
  • Barefoot preference is more common in characters who have a more animalistic physiology than others. Cookie and Nyarai are the only barefooters. The main difference is that Cookie has digitigrade paws that make it hard to find shoes for her while Nyarai has humanoid feet with paw pads similar to Muko and Kalita, being barefoot out of choice or preference.
• The cast of Kevin & Kell, except for the human baby Francis. Lampshaded on occasion: they hang up Christmas stockings, but don't know what they're for beyond putting presents in. Also on the occasion Danielle (who's from the human dimension) makes shoes for Francis and the other are perplexed by it.
• The titular characters of Laugh Out Loud Cats are fully dressed except for footwear. Lampshaded in this strip.
  "I'd make a peach cobblr, but we don't evn wear shoes."
• In Lancer: The Knights of Fenris, a furry Space Opera, most of the characters are soldiers who wear a variety of military uniforms, complete with boots. However, there's been one exception so far: the feline Duchess Ivanna Morozov, whose costume is a flowing white robe and bare feet.
• NonPack is a Mature Animal Story about criminal gangs in an anthropomorphic version of Puerto Rico. Most characters are fully dressed but barefoot, although there are some shoe-wearing exceptions.
• Most of the all-anthro cast of Ozy and Millie have shoe-free outfits, with some prominent exceptions. Ozy, Avery, and Ms. Sorkowitz are Half Dressed Cartoon Animals. Meanwhile, Isolde is both a Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal and The One Who Wears Shoes, as was Ms. Mudd in some early strips. Also, Locke is never shown without his pirate boots (except in an early arc where he impersonates Millie).
• Isla Grace Abernathy, the star of Professor Amazing and the Incredible Golden Fox, is a human crimefighter who can shapeshift into two fox forms (bipedal and feral) by using a Transformation Trinket. In anthro form, she wears a tanktop and shorts but no shoes.
• The all-anthro cast of Sabrina Online consists of otherwise-clothed barefooters. While Sabrina herself appears to be a Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal, she's actually wearing the furry equivalent of Nude Colored Pants.
• Slightly Damned
  • Jakkai, Khamega and Fairies are all shoeless although some jakkai have covering on their legs.
  • Demons lack of footwear is addressed here, it's explained that their feet are as tough as the rest of them so they don't need any as well as the fact that due to their large size and varied appearances, shoes just won't fit them.
• The all-anthro cast of S.S.D.D. are almost always unshod but otherwise fully clothed, to the point that they go barefoot during military training (but not the actual missions). Lampshaded in this strip, in which a character wonders why his feet have only three toes each, when "having more toes would spread the weight more evenly!" The answer: "It would be a pain in the arse to draw though!"
• The characters from The Suburban Jungle are digitigrade Funny Animals whose outfits don't include shoes. Lampshaded in one strip:
  Conrad: I was on tour with a production of Barefoot in the Park.
  Leona: What's so significant about being barefoot in the park?
  Conrad: I have no idea, really. It's a pretty whacked-out play.
• In the furry Heroic Fantasy world of Swords and Sausages, nobody seems to wear anything on their feet, unless you count the wrappings Silver the vixen thief has around her ankles. (Because of this, Kiela the feline sorceress is a Magical Barefooter, a trait that doesn't make her stand out in this setting.) However, a significant portion of the male population (including Silver's partner Tor the tiger) wear shorts and long shirts, which makes them look like Half Dressed Cartoon Animals.
• The furry characters in TwoKinds tend to be either mostly or entirely naked, but they consistently go barefoot due to their digitigrade foot structure.
• VHV features a cast of kangaroo-like space colonists who are fully clothed except for shoes.
• All of the main anthropomorphic cast of The Whiteboard are barefoot even when otherwise fully clothed. Swampy even Lampshaded it in this strip:
  Swamp Fox: ". . . why do I even own socks?"
• In the original run of The World of Vicki Fox, about half the furry characters (most notably Vicki and her friend Meredith Skunk) usually wore full outfits but went barefoot while the rest wore shoes. When the comic returned from hiatus in 2017, most of the shoe-wearers started going barefoot as well.
  • Lampshaded in one strip which simultaneously invokes both this trope and All Women Love Shoes. Meredith's boyfriend Aussie complains when Meredith and Vicki rope him into a shopping trip:
    Aussie: You'll drag me in every shoe shop in the mall... to buy shoes you don't even wear!
  • Lampshaded again here. Vicki and Meredith are about to go on a camping trip together, and Vicki suggests they wear boots.
    Meredith: I, like, don't wear shoes, 'cept for heels.

Web Original

• A great deal of anthro/furry artists on the web always draw their characters barefoot, even if they're otherwise dressed perfectly normally, and even in situations where going barefoot is inadvisable (like, say, in snow, though some animals are adapted to snow). Listing specific artists would likely quadruple the length of the list, however. The trope is very rarely lampshaded, and often times not even noted; that is, it's not uncommon for a character's reference sheet to depict the character barefoot, even in multiple different costumes, but even if it goes into great detail about the character's wardrobe preferences, their preferred footwear (or preferred lack thereof) is never brought up.
• '90s cult icon Elmo Aardvark usually appeared fully dressed with a red vest and necktie. He ditched the shoes for his appearance on the self-titled web series Elmo Aardvark: Outer Space Detective! in 2004.
• Anthros from the Tails Series are always noted for being shoeless. This is most likely because most anthros' feet and footpaws are too big for shoes, and because shoes are generally uncomfortable for them to wear.

Web Videos

• Duck from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared wears a jacket and shorts, but no shoes.

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