To enjoy mountain biking to the utmost, you will need to invest in a pair of mountain bike shoes. No matter what your mountain biking experience, the right pair of shoes can help you to ride safe, more comfortably, and more efficiently. Clipless pedals are a normal design for mountain bike shoes, but you will find that the shoes can be used with toe clips and standard pedals, too.
The first mountain bikes did not have clipless pedals, which made it very difficult to get their feet out of the toe-clips if they needed to. It made it very unsafe, because the rider was sometimes forced to go down with his mountain bike when it wrecked. When clipless pedals were invented, it made mountain biking safer. Riders can easily twist their foot out of the pedal or if there is sufficient force, the shoe and pedal will come apart without having to twist the foot.
If you ride just for fun and your bike is without the clipless pedals, then you will want to find mountain bike shoes that are compatible with Shimano Pedaling Dynamics (SPD) anyway. All you will have to do is leave the cover intact over when the cleats attach. This will give you the opportunity to go...