This brings up an interesting thought: should there be a reason to wear footwear, or a penalty for not doing so?

For instance, walking in a desert barefoot would most likely be a somewhat burning experience... even more so one should lose hp in snowy regions without proper shoes/boots (this was actually implemented in U7 part II already, going to the snowy mountains without a fur hat and boots would cause rapid hp loss).

Having a reason to wear footwear would be a small boost to tailors as well, assuming exceptionally made footwear would be more effective than store-bought rubbish.

On the flipside, folks may not want yet another thing to worry about item-wise...