Fursuit Footpaws

Index

(Listed prices are for Indoor paws and come with free Sandals. If you want outdoor soles only you get a $100 discount!)

(Dont forget to mention if you have a different number of toes (ie. 3, 4 ) than your ref sheet depicts. For special toe configurations like on sergals make sure you talk to me about your preferred design)

Footpaw Design

(Sometimes my footpaws come out ambidextrous, sometimes they do not. This mostly depends on the design of your feet. If your feet have a left and a right they will be marked accordingly with tags on the fleece liner)

All I need from you to get started on a pair of footpaws is your foot size! If you are getting digitigrade footpaws i'll need your height and/or the distance from the ground to the center of your knee as well. 

Footpaw Core Fabrication:

I start by cutting sections of EVA foam matching the outlines of your footpaw bottoms. I then draw where the ends of your toes will sit according to your foot size. I make a template with cardstock of the appropriate toe shape, with a cutaway on the bottom for where your feet will go. This template is traced onto (typically) 2 inch foam. if you have 4 toes (common) The 2 inner toes have cutaways for your real feet, so about 4 inches wide. The outer toes do not have these cutaways. Each of the toes gets its contours hand-carved before being glued together. The heel is usually a section of 1/2 inch foam around 10 inches tall that wraps around the back of the foot and connects to the 2 edge toes. 

Once the base is done, the inside liner is first added. This is usually done with fleece or minky of an appropriate color. It gets glued to the inside face of the foam to permanently hold it together. After this is done the EVA foam sole gets permanently glued to the rest of the base. This minimal adhesion would quickly fail if it were the only thing holding the sole on. To reinforce the feet, a layer of linen is added on every exterior surface with liberal amounts of hot glue. Strips of linen are glued across the span of the sole mating surface. This makes the soles (and feet overall) very tough in the long run. If your sona has claws they are then attached to the feet via stitching to the linen, or hot glued. 

Feet endure the most beating of any fursuit part. They are constantly under compressive loads and shear at the heel and toe tips. My heavy linen reinforcement layer ensures you wont be coming back for repairs any time soon. 

Footpaw Furring:

After this the feet are ready to get covered in tape for templates, just like a DTD. The tape sections are peeled off one by one and stuck to construction paper for cutting out flat negatives with margins. Each toe is always its own fur segment. If there are claws, the seam to surround them is cut below the claws. The heels and sides of footpaws are usually left as medium-long fur. The toes are usually pre-shaved short, and additional toe trimming with fabric scissors is done at my discretion. If your feet are indoor paws you also have sole fur. The soles are shaved short and the pawpads are either machine sewn or hand stitched on depending on type. The soles are then machine sewn to the heel fur and calf fur(if digi type).  

The toes are usually hand-stitched together in a section separate from the rest of the foot fur. This allows me to carefully glue down the toe fur, making sure to adhere the fur all the way in the bottom of the toe cracks. This leaves a glued seam between the sole/heel fur, and the toe fur. Its not noticeable once finished, and completely necessary due to the foot geometry. 

The rest of the furring is then finished differently depending on if they are Plantigrade Feet, or Digitigrade Feet. These differences will get explained in each section. 

Plantigrade Footpaws ~$500

Plantigrade feet are ankle-high fursuit feet. This means they are compatible only with my plantigrade bodysuits that descend all the way to the ankle (or while partialing with pants). The toes of my plantigrade feet tend to be a little smaller than for digi feet. Everything from the waist down is bigger on digi feet. 

Plantigrade Foot Fabrication:

The fabrication proceeds according to the above section. To finish plantigrade feet I hand stitch the fleece liners at the ankle to the fur overhang also at the ankle. I may or may not run a section of nylon strapping around the opening to prevent stretching. 

If you have indoor paws with sandals, the feet will ship with the sandals allready attached so you know how to do it yourself afterwards!

Digitigrade Footpaws ~$800

My digitigrade footpaws are knee-high and are compatible only with my digi-bodysuits, or other digi bodysuits that stop right below the knee. These toes and claws tend to be bigger and they look best when coupled with the digi padding in your body suit. They have a (~1 foot long) strip of 2 inch velcro that runs down the front of the feet from the shin. You can pull this velcro apart to get in and out of the feet. Its usually not visible when closed. 

Digitigrade Foot Fabrication:

Their fabrication is similar to what was covered in the Footpaw Design section, with a few extras. Calf pads are carved out of 2 inch foam and sculpted to emphasize the back of the leg. These are attached at the top of the 1/2 inch heel foam, and more wedges of 1/2 inch foam are added to the sides to close the gap around the shins. This whole foam base is lined with fleece and the exterior is reinforced with linen, same as in the Footpaw Design section. The linen reinforcement at the shin gap is sewn to the 2 inch velcro before being glued in with the rest of the linen. Duct tape templating and furring proceeds in the same fashion as the other sections. The fur on the calf and shin areas is usually left long. 

Claw Types

If your sona has claws I have a few options available for you:

• Fleece or minky claws: handstitched into cones, stuffed tight with polyfil, then handstitched to your footpaw cores. Frequently lunging while you walk might get the tips dirty

• 3D printed claws: claws modeled by me. I can paint them any color you like or even use UV-reactive printer filament. They get hot glued under the reinforcement linen. Frequent lunging when you walk might break tips off

I can custom model a special claw shape for you for an additional ~$30. (I reserve the right to use these models for other fursuits afterwards)

If you want me to add pink fleece cuticles to the base of your claws (most applicable to felines) this can be done for an additional $20

Sole Types

Depending on how into footbeans you are, there are a few options for you:

• Indoor Paws: These are usually what I make. The feet come with pawpads of your choice. These feet also come with a pair of my standard fursuit sandals. You'll need to wear the fursuit sandals at all time while walking around at cons to prevent dirtying up the feet. 

• Outdoor Paws: These feet just have bare EVA foam or rubber-composite soles on the underside. The bottoms can get dirty just like shoes. These do not come with sandals. If you select this Sole type you get a $100 discount!

(Note: Digi-Stilts *only* come as the "Outdoor Paw" type, there is no associated discount however)

Indoor Pawpad Types

If you opt for indoor footpaws I have a variety of pawpad options for you to choose from, some with surcharges:

• Fleece or Minky pawpads: machine sewn to the fur. This is the most comfortable and versatile option

• Fake leather pawpads: machine sewn to the fur. These are a nice texture for pawpads but they tend to fold a little at the edges on thicker pads. If you select this option it is recommended to use thin 1/2 inch foam or no foam for the cores. (These are not recommended for footpaws since concrete or other abrasive surfaces will chew up the leather quickly). 

• Silicone pawpads: These use my custom made pawpad molds. I can dye the silicone whatever color you like and even add swirls or UV dye, or embed sparkles. The silicone is set into a burlap backing that gets hand-stitched to the fur. These add considerable weight to your paws. These also might effect your stance in the paws. They are squishy but will still make your toe-tips higher. I recommend an additional silicone pad towards the heel to even out your stance) Add~$80

Fursuit Sandals

(If you are looking to just get a pair of fursuit sandals I can make them custom for your feet for just $100!)

If you opt for indoor footpaws they will also come with a free pair of Sandals! You need these on any time you are walking around at cons or else you'll dirty up your beans pretty quick! If this happens however, usually a bit of cleaning with warm water and brushing or [The Dunk] (see Cleaning and Maintenance) will suffice. 

Fursuit Sandal Design:

Most fursuit makers like to use EVA foam for their fursuit sandals, but personally I think its a little too weak to stand up to that much abuse. Here at atomic fursuits we...I... have refined my sandal design into a robust durable bean protection machine. My sandals are made from hard Rubberized composite flooring, much tougher and harder than EVA foam. You will randomly receive a gray or black pair depending on what I have in stock. 

Mirrored outlines of your fursuit feet are  first traced onto the composite, then the sections are cut out with heavy duty aviator snips, and the edges are cleaned up with an angle grinder. 5 Holes are drilled in each for the heel, sides, and front rivets. ~6 inch long sections of velcro are sewn onto 1 inch elastic strap and nylon strapping of the correct length to wrap around your feet. 

The straps are then riveted into place with large fender washers on either side to distribute the load. The straps and smooth side faces up. The abrasive side faces down. On the bottom side, laser cut 2 inch wide washers of EVA foam are added between the fender washer and composite. After enough use clients started returning with pop rivets breaking off. The repeated grinding against the rivet heads was eventually rubbing them completely off. The addition of an EVA washer makes it such that the rivet heads are countersunk and never endure direct abrasion. 

The addition of the EVA washers came with its own caveat. The recess made by the rivets turned the EVA washers into perfectly shaped suction cups. I'll admit, while it is hilarious watching my clients try to walk around like pissed off octopus, its probably unprofessional of me. I decided to fix the problem by cutting out little wedges in each washer to disrupt the vacuum seal. 

How to Put on your Sandals:

Each Sandal has 4 sections to velcro together:

• Firstly, the sides each have nylon straps that aren't stretchy. These go together first over the midline. 

• Second, the heel has one long section of elastic coming off it. Wrap this around the same area as the side straps. 

• Finally, for the 2 straps in the front, slide them between the appropriate toes and underneath the first nylon strap. do this for both, then fold them back on each other to attach the velcro. 

• Re-Tighten the first 2 straps if necessary, and Viola! 

Digi-Stilts ~$1200

Hey, Hey you! YEAH YOU! Are you tired of being a WIMP?! Do you wanna be a JERK??? do you wanna TOWER OVER YOUR ENEMIES LIKE A GOD?! Well for 10 crisp Benjamins I can give you a power fantasy fit for a king!...or queen!... or a Maned Wolf!

My Digi-Stilts are compatible with any of my digitigrade suits and can be swapped out for regular digi feet whenever you want! They will also work with any other makers digi-suits provided their body suit stops at the knee. These will add about 1 foot 4 inches to your height. It doesn't seem like a lot, but if combined with the rest of a fursuit and ears you can easily break 8 feet and tower over everyone. These are super fun to wear at cons but you will get worn out over time. It's recommended you buy these after allready owning a digi suit with regular digi feet so you have something easier to switch out to when you get fatigued. 

Scaffold Design:

A lot of the scaffold design come from This Cosplay Channel. I made a few tweaks of my own to better work with fursuits. 

To make a pair of digi-stilts for you I first need your shoe size and your height. I'll buy some shoes in your size to sacrifice to the tall gods. The frame of the stilts are made from construction lumber. I start with a 10 inch section of 1x4 for the bottom. 2 2x6 sections are cut at a 40 degree angle with an additional 4 inch rise. Another 1x4 about 22 inches long gets fastened to the 40 degree angle and the base board. A small 2x4 shim is added at a 50 degree angle to make the toe-rest horizontal. The sacrificial shoes are then fastened into the end of the angle board with 3 inch wood screws and fender washers underneath the in-soles. 

Outlines of the bottom of the fursuit feet are cut from rubber composite with aviator snips and sanded in the same fashion as my sandals. These are fastened to the baseboard with wood screws and washers. A section of EVA foam of the same shape is riveted along its border to the rubber composite to add as extra cushion and to countersink the fastening screws and rivets. 

To resist excessive fatigue in your calf muscles, an assist mechanism is installed. Firstly T-bars are mounted to the baseboard right at the ankle of the shoes. ~2ft sections of steel C-beam are mounted to the end of the T-bars with bolts that pass through the shoes to keep the T-bars in place. The bolts are locked down with double nuts to allow pivoting. The top of the Steel C-beams are bolted together with a half-round of 4 inch PVC coupling. The coupling is padded with EVA foam so it can be leaned into without discomfort to the top of the shins. Finally, A ring bolt is attached to the top end of the angle board and a 22 inch solid Rubber bungee is ran through it and up to the PVC mount points to act like an assisting tendon. 

Foaming and Furring:

Once the functional parts of the stilts are made the foaming and furring proceeds similarly to regular digi feet. The toes are built up with standard fursuit foam, and the calves are made from fursuit foam as well. One big difference however, is that you can only get in and out of the stilts from the back. Instead of having a velcro fastener strip in the front of the feet, the calf is split into 2, and 2 velcro mating surfaces are sewn into the liner fleece. The calves simply sandwich together to close on your legs.  There is minimal (1/2 inch) or no foam on the front of the digi stilts above the paws, and on the sides of the digi stilts. All of those gaps and the surrounding foamed areas are uniformly sealed with linen and hot glue on the outside, and fleece on the inside according to my usual methods. 

The stilts are then templated with duct tape and furred in the same manor as other fursuit feet. 

( Be aware that digi stilt feet are ONLY "outdoor" paws. They do not have any pawpads on the bottom. The bottom is only a piece of riveted EVA foam)

Horse Hoofs:

This was done for Tora originally. The digi-stilt design works great for horse hoofs. (The price of horse hoof digi stilts is the same as paw digi-stilts) 

The digi stilt horse hoofs have an additional plywood cardiac shape screwed onto the baseboard, along with a plywood horseshoe to fit its edge. The horseshoe screws are countersunk so flat plywood is all that is contacting the ground. This shape gives the hoofs a really *really* nice clomping sound on solid floors.  

The body of the hoof is built up from sections of high density polystyrene. The interior is actually hollow, the HDPS just forms a shell. The HDPS gets coated with polyurethane for protection, then its fiberglassed and sanded to make tough rigid hooves that are permanently bonded to the wooden horseshoes below. For Tora the hooves were spray painted, then toony reflections were added with acrylic paint. 

All of the furring above the hooves proceeds the same way as with digi-stilt paws (fleece on the inside, linen reinforcement, then fur).