Seriously, why no footwear, SWAT Kats?

[Agracite]

Clearly the kats in this world wear some sort of footwear. The SWAT Kats do when they are working in the garage as Jake and Chance. Dr Viper I understand, he's not a kat fully anymore (and not quite right in the head). Dark Kat doesn't but his past is a mystery, maybe he's lived in a society that do not wear shoes or comes from an environment where kats didn't develop a need for them. The SWAT Kats however were raised in the same country as others and they ought to know better. Was this a character design choice? A tactical purpose? An excuse to let loose from their foot prisons?

[Mikazo]

This is a great question. It's enough to give you pawse, isn't it?

The only reason I can think of, in addition to (maybe?) sneaking around more easily, is to help them climb things better. In the SNES game you are frequently scaling walls. Maybe they really need that extra dexterity. Seems there would be a trade-off though, that going barefoot would be hazardous in a lot of other ways. Maybe they will reevaluate this practice at some point.

Or maybe they just want to set a trend. (Or a tread?)

[NeeKnight]

My personal theory is the guys feet size make it expensive to buy shoes for... I mean compare the feet of the main guys to the feet of the female cast or the likes of Feral they would need to pay out more for the materials alone.
The only times we see the guys in footwear (To my knoweledge anyway) are:

When TBone wore his flight commander gear Turmoil gave him.
When they were leaving the enforcers.
The first time they set foot in the salvage yard.

Two of those, they were not the ones footing the bill.... sorry about the pun. Of course, if the city pays for Enforcers footwear. So out of those times they wore their own shoes only the once and it could be those are their only shoes they have with their current salaries so it's likely they are just keeping those for sunday best

[Cody Furlong]

My guess, is that it is so that they can retain the use of the claws in their toes. Evn without shoes, they would still have their paw pads to protect them.

[MoDaD]

[Cait]

^This Swat Kats, you should know well, safety comes first!

[Kooshmeister]

Easy. The creators are furry foot fetishists.

[Prettyshadowj26]

I think The Swat Kats is too cool to wear shoe

[Kooshmeister]

They wear shoes when working as mechanics, though.

[Felony]

Easy. The creators are furry foot fetishists.

LULZ noooooo Holy kats no! XD

I don't think the practicality of them being barefoot was considered. Probably was a style choice cause they are kitties meowr and it looks cool.