Tom Dincht wrote:^ You do know that Sonic`s shoes are what made him fast, right?
This is highly debatable, actually. The actual origin of Sonic's speed (or Sonic himself) is very hazy. Sonic has been incarnated into many different forms of media. (The official games, cartoons, anime, comics, books, ect.) and each version has it's own universe and possible origin of Sonic and his speed.
The games themselves have multiple origins of which may or may not be incorrect. (A few cornball American origins and an extremely detailed Japanese origin that may or may not have been fan created.) As the games themselves never state ANYTHING about Sonic's true origins, I would say it's shrouded in mystery for now.