Character Sketch - Gene Paw Idea

Just a small posting today, but one that probably needs some explaining.

For the longest time, I've been thinking about something with my character Gene, more specifically, about his paws.
See, while Gene wears sandals, most of the time they're meant to be sole-less and he's been rather bare-pawed all this time, so I've been wondering about if there should be something that helps explain that: giving him some kind of underpaw or paw pads or something. He loves being around the snow and ice and such, so I figured there should be a bit of a reason for it.

This sketch is an idea that I actually kind of like; kind of this rough (if not scaly) underpaw that helps with traction and such. The problem is that this idea isn't really mine, it's based off of some of Yark-Wark's sketches for her character Tero and his race, but I feel like I'm ripping her off though.

So...it's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it's one that will stay.