Hi-Speed Shoes

The Hi-Speed Shoes  are objects that appear in Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. They are special shoes which Sonic the Hedgehog wore during the Space Colony ARK incident.

Concept and creation
The Hi-Speed Shoes are based on a real-life custom version of the Scorcher/Nitro shoe from Soap, while the darker character Shadow wore hybrid jet hoverskate/grind shoes, as grinding (or "soaping") debuted as an important new gameplay element in Sonic Adventure 2.

Appearance
The Hi-Speed Shoes greatly resemble the Power Sneakers. Featuring more foot-shaped proportions and outlines, they are mostly red with tongues, solid white cuffs, and thin white straps with golden fasteners on each end over their middle. The outsoles are yellow, red and grey, highly detailed, and have a red recess below the in-steps. The rims on the front of the outsoles are white, while the heel rims are grey and the rims on the middle have yellow and white arches.

Features and abilities
Like the Power Sneakers, the Hi-Speed Shoes appear virtually friction proof, showing no wear from being used to run at the speed of sound. In addition, they are specifically made for the grinding maneuver, ensuring high-speed movements on Grind Rails.

Soap footwear
The Hi-Speed Shoes are derived from the real-life Soap shoes, which are shoes made for grinding. They were introduced by Chris Morris of Artemis Innovations Inc. with the brand name "Soap" in 1997. They have a plastic concavity in the sole, which allows the wearer to grind on objects such as pipes, handrails, and stone ledges. The company and their product rapidly gained popularity through fansites, a video game, and live demonstrations. Soap fell to legal vulnerabilities and was readministrated twice, eventually bringing the brand to Heeling Sports Limited. The act of grinding on rails and ledges specifically using Soap shoes has been dubbed "soaping," with the "soaper" being the one performing said act.

Soap in Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic Adventure 2 presented many billboards, blimps, and benches advertising Soap due to a partnership to promote the product and the new extreme sport, freestyle grinding, that Soap's shoes were made for; the Hi-Speed Shoes in Sonic Adventure 2 were modeled after Soaps' shoes for this purpose. Although grinding remained a core gameplay element in subsequent Sonic games, officially licensed Soap shoes have given way to generic grind shoes. Pending the sale of Soap to In-Stride and later HSL, no actions were taken for the continuation of the partnership.

Though the Hi-Speed Shoes still appear in the HD version of Sonic Adventure 2, the Soap Shoe ads are not present, having been replaced with other ads, such as ads for Sonic Team or the word "Speed".

Sonic X
In two episodes of the anime Sonic X, Sonic's Hi-Speed Shoes are brought in to give Sonic an advantage over his enemies.

Trivia

 * Sonic was supposed to use his normal shoes in the game, but they were replaced by these shoes. Early pictures of the Neutral Garden and Sonic Adventure 2 Trial shows Sonic with his normal shoes.
 * A pair of Sonic's Hi-Speed Shoes can be unlocked for an Xbox Live Avatar by amassing a total playtime of 10 hours in Sonic Adventure 2. The shoes, however, are not as detailed as their in-game counterpart.
 * Interestingly enough, the Soap brand has two shoes named CHAOS_6028 and CHAOS_6029. Whether this is a reference to the Sonic the Hedgehog series is not known.