Between the prequel comic book Star Trek: Countdown and the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray for 2009’s Star Trek reboot, we learned a lot of great backstory. One tidbit was the explanation for the Romulans (Nero and his crew) wearing cloven-toed boots. Prior to encountering the USS Kelvin, which resulted in the early birth of James T. Kirk in space instead of Iowa and the death of his father, Nero and crew were imprisoned by a band of Klingons. Presumably as part of their escape they took their captors’ clothes, hence the cloven-toed boots–the familiar footwear of Klingons since Star Trek: The Motion Picture through Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond.
When costumer Michael Kaplan was sourcing his Romulan (formerly Klingon) garb for the film, he ended up using some unique and stylish creations from the folks behind Ayyawear and Verillas, and for a brief time after the film you could buy the same creations from their original source at Romwear.com. Romwear.com no longer exists, but you can still buy the cloven-toed Tabi boots from Ayyawear and Verillas in several different styles.
Ayyawear and Verillas recently expanded their products, so now the outfitters are a great place to source cosplay components, whether you’re looking for steampunk, warrior garb, or just the right futuristic piece to finish your own creation, both websites offer some great ideas, from footwear to outerwear and accessories like an arrow quiver.
The two-toed Tabi boots are particularly cool, just make sure you pick up some thick two-toed socks when you buy them. Wear them for parkour or your next neo-ninja outing. Ayyawear and Verillas also carry some great affordable steampunk goggles. And these designs are for regular wear–not only for building up your cosplay wardrobe.
Check out all the great products and designs from Ayyawear at Ayyawear.com and Verillas at Verillas.com.
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com
The Klingon theory sounds reasonable, but you can see the Romulans wearing the tabi boots in the beginning of the movie (before the Kelvin is destroyed) so they didn’t get them from the Klingons. And if you look at Nero’s or Ayel’s bare hands, they are obviously human shaped which means Romulan feet will look identical to human. So why they are wearing split toe boots is still a mystery. But I won’t lie it looks cool on them.