Sonic The Hedgehog Movie May Not Feature His Shoes

To clarify, Sonic’s feet have been shown before, just never in any canon instances. Considering the fiasco revolving around the movie’s original design of Sonic, it’s probably safe to say that the movie isn’t canon either and will, therefore, be another non-canon appearance of Sonic’s feet if it decides to go that route. In fact, Takashi Iizuka – the vice president of product development for Sonic the Hedgehog – commented about Sonic not taking his shoes by simply saying, “Sonic doesn’t take off his shoes (in canon).” This response goes to a question posed by Polygon, who asked it after witnessing the bizarre sight of Sonic surfing with his shoes on against Mario in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

Fans should probably just consider Sonic’s shoes to be as much a part of his body as the Pokemon Hitmonchan’s boxing gloves are. Weird, yes, but from a company’s perspective, why go through the trouble of designing feet for a character whose shoes and overall appearance are already iconic?

Sonic the Hedgehog will race into theaters February 14, 2020.

MORE: The 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Sonic Games, According To Metacritic