Ah, yes, most compliments regarding my feet-wear are, indeed, pointed at the colour scheme, which is most often associated with pride in American culture, but, in fact, there is a deeper purpose to their design. You see, they are meant to protect me from manticores. Even the stuggy beasts–those with more successful catches of prey–are quite swift, so it essential to be swift*er* in order to evade their jaws. A pellar gifted me both shoes and socks as they are specially suited to carry one through tricky situations with grace and speed. The red stripes symbolize fiery fastness while the white stripes symbolize lickety-split lightning; the blue on the shoes symbolizes the sadness felt by the predators chasing those with the special socks and shoes when the creatures fail in their quest to nab a bite. Now, not just any striped socks and shoes will work; there were incantations sprinkled with gadzookery involved, so please beware the manticores unless one has been properly bewitched, else in the tumbly of the beast may one find the self pitched. ; )