Got this off some Spidey forums. Basically my feelings as well. (could be wrong but who knows)
"I posted this before in the pictures thread, but the silver is definitely part of the costume. The reason is they're supposed to look like professional wrestling boots. The whole suit is meant to look like the costume of a pro wrester, or an entertainer, not a superhero. That's why it looks so over the top and has all those elements that people are calling pointless, like the red stripes on the legs (and I think why the webshooters are so much more prominent). Thats all deliberate.
Since this film is (supposedly) more realistic in tone, Spider-Man would not be presented as a "superhero", but simply as a kid who acquires some amazing abilities, uses them to become an entertainer then uses them to help people. So he just keeps wearing his costume when he begins fighting crime, even though it looks a bit ridiculous. But if I'm not mistaken, that's sort of been a joke in the comics before, hasn't it?
Just look at the costume in this pic, it looks so thrown together, look at the mask is tucked into the rest of the costume. I think Webb is going to blow our minds with this film and I can smell an element of misdirection here and the majority of people appear to be lapping it up."
