i included socks --shoelessness/soft walking, is the essence of padding..

and i checked some dictionaries.. the american ones all had one meaning of padding as 'walking softly, or shoeless, indoors' but not all the UK ones did..

i wonder if its a dutch term that has spread up and down the east coast, (like stoops--which exist in boston and baltimore) or if its english and just fallen out of favor (like fall, the season) and lives on in the americas.

i suspect toe print are as unique as fingerprints.. babies are regularly 'foot printed' in hospitals as means of identity. the lines and wrinkles of their tiny feet are each unique. (and i think there was a CSI show that utilized toe prints too.. )