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I'm not SCA either, I'm an English early medieval re-enactor, but dodgy shoes seem to be a constant in all forms of recreational medievalism. I've been making shoes and other period leatherwork for about 15 years. A good shoemaker will always be popular, but personally I only make them for family and a couple of close friends, because they are about my least favourite bit of leatherwork to actually do. If you enjoy shoemaking, then even if you're "half-skilled" now, you'll get enough work that you'll soon be a master cobbler.

Please bear in mind that everything below is written from the perspective of someone who thinks history ended at about 2pm on 14 October 1066, Haroldus Rex interfectus est and everything after that is just modern :).

Be prepared to waste a lot of leather, especially when you're starting out. Remember that most people have slightly different sized feet, a left shoe is not simply a mirror image of a right shoe, especially in period shoes, always get measurements/patterns for both feet. A last is not a model of a foot, it is a model of the inside of a shoe. Learn to sew really well, I always use saddle stitch but it's not essential, and knot the thread every 4-5 stitches to minimise the risk of the shoe falling apart as soon as the thread wears through, which it will. Use the best quality waxed linen thread you can get, I'd compromise on quality of leather before buying cheap thread. The leather probably doesn't need to be as thick as you think, this may just be me, but the number of shoes I've made and then realised they would have been better, and easier to make, with slightly thinner leather. A shoe that is slightly too small for comfort can often be stretched to fit by putting it on and sitting with your foot in a bowl of water for a couple of hours.

Finally, a lot of people, especially the beer and bash brigade, will tell you medieval shoes don't have enough grip and want modern soles. Don't give in to them, wet grass on a steep slope can be challenging, but apart from that I've never had any real difficulty walking, running or fighting in authentic shoes. There are special cases, such as people with disabilities or people planning on walking a very long way on modern road surfaces, but in general medieval shoes are as comfortable and effective as modern shoes. If you really want to improve the grip, hobnails or strips of leather glued on to make a tread are reasonable compromises.

Resources:

The most comprehensive online resource: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/SHOEHOME.HTM
I printed out the entire site several years ago, and still refer to it frequently.

Two pages with shoes good for novices to make:

A nice guide to making simple early medieval shoes:
http://dineidyn.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/a-beginners-guide-to-turnshoes.pdf

Very very simple, but authentic early medieval shoes (without hurrying I can knock out a shoe in 2 hours using this method), a bit wasteful of leather but the offcuts can used for toggles, etc:
http://www.vikingsonline.org.uk/resources/authenticity/basickit/basickit15.html#frontseam

From the same site, a guide to early medieval shoe fastenings:
http://www.vikingsonline.org.uk/resources/authenticity/basickit/annex11.html
(Ignore what it says about bone/horn/wood toggles, there is virtually no evidence for them in the archaeological record. Admittedly they wouldn't survive well in the ground, but their total absence, as compared to other small items of the same materials, suggests they weren't used. The leather toggles it shows are far more likely to be authentic.)

This looks like a possibly useful Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/periodshoes/?fref=ts
I only found it while I was writing this, but it looks promising.

If you're interested in early medieval shoes this Facebook group may be useful (both for research and selling):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/624164817603195/?fref=ts

A word of warning about Facebook groups - be wary of posting to groups that are not explicitly SCA-oriented. The SCA has a very different approach to authenticity to that of most European re-enactors, and SCAdians can be subjected to very unpleasant levels of mockery and vitriol.

Printed resources:

If you're seriously interested in historical shoes, this is just about essential:
http://www.amazon.com/Archaeological-Footwear-Development-Patterns-Prehistory/dp/9089321179/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421324590&sr=1-1
Vast selection of shoes, with (very small) cutting patterns.

This is also very good, has a different selection of shoes. I would strongly recommend both books but if you have to choose this would be my second choice:
http://www.amazon.com/Stepping-Through-Time-Archaeological-Prehistoric/dp/9089320024/ref=la_B001KCUT80_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421324595&sr=1-2

Much less comprehensive, and less useful for reconstructing, but well worth a read and half the price of the other two:
http://www.amazon.com/Shoes-Pattens-Medieval-Excavations-London/dp/1843832380/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421324583&sr=1-1

1. The SCA is fairly welcoming, however, it's a large group of people and can have all the same problems as any group of people. A lot of people are here to hang out and party as much as anything else.
   
   
2. The SCA has nowhere near the standards you're probably used to for CW/WWII reenacting. It sounds like you'll manage the garb side of things pretty easily. There are some oddities about the tailoring/fit of some of the medieval stuff, but probably nothing you can't handle. There are a few books I recommend (links at the bottom of the post). Plastic armor is fine, but it is generally best to cover it with clothing or similar. Helmets must be steel for safety purposes. Most of the well put-together kits are the result of years of work. There's far less of an expectation that you'll have everything 100% ready to go on day 1 than is typical of reenacting groups.
   
   
3. You need your armor ready to go, but after that, you just need to pass a safety test called an "authorization" to fight. It's pretty much about knowing what targets count, making sure you're safe, etc. You won't become a "knight" in our game for a long time (It's one of the highest awards).
   
   
4. Women are welcome to fight and to wear men's clothing if they like. There are no rules about that.
   
   
5. Armor-wise, the Indian made stuff is generally poorly fitting (as in not made to fit a human body) and too thin to use. There are some decent Czech and Ukrainian armories though. That being said, most people are getting their reproduction shoes from a company in Pakistan (usually indirectly) and a lot of the decent chain mail is coming from India IIRC. It's a mixed bag. It is best to go to practices, find some people who you trust to provide guidance, etc. Unfortunately the result of our far less strict standards on gear/equipment and far wider historical scope also means that we don't have a good set of unit standards or the like to help provide guidance.
   
   Costuming books:
   http://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Tailors-Assistant-2nd-1100-1480/dp/0896762955
   http://www.amazon.com/Tudor-Tailor-Reconstructing-Sixteenth-Century-Dress/dp/0896762556
   http://www.amazon.com/Patterns-Fashion-Construction-Clothes-1560-1620/dp/0896760839
   http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Maker-Mens-Century-Doublets/dp/0692264841
   
   Shoes:
   http://www.vikingleathercrafts.com/
   http://boots-by-bohemond.myshopify.com/
   
   Armour:
   http://armourarchive.org/

I do a Danish Viking from Hedeby, circa current year minus 1000, so 1014 currently.

What do you want to know?

For research, I've read the following:

http://www.amazon.com/Viking-Clothing-Thor-Ewing/dp/0752435876

http://www.amazon.com/Viking-Hersir-793-1066-AD-Warrior/dp/1855323184

http://www.amazon.com/The-Vikings-Elite-Ian-Heath/dp/0850455650

http://www.amazon.com/Saxon-Viking-Norman-Arms-Series/dp/0850453011

http://www.amazon.com/The-Varangian-Guard-988-1453-Men-at-Arms/dp/1849081794

The Osprey books are pretty low-level stuff, but have pretty pictures. You could do a hell of a lot worse than just trying to look like one of those.

These sites are also good for reading:

http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/clothing.shtml

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=43165

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=46922

Good luck!

There was this book list that was posted on the Google+ SCA medieval brewing boards...perhaps it can be of some help.

I also have these books: 1, 2,3, which have been some amazing and helpful resources. The feast of ice and fire book is good because it shows common medieval recipes and then their current-age counterpart.

a great resource for fencing manuscripts is http://wiktenauer.com personally i would recommend taking a look at Giganti a translation of which you can get right off Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0982591128/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481352452&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Giganti+fencing

I'm more familiar with the Irish clothing of the late period but, if you are interested in late period, you might find this blog page and this book interesting starts.

Books by Christopher De Hamel, David Thompson, Janet Backhouse, and Marc Drogin are all wonderful. For an overall I would start with http://www.amazon.com/dp/0801487080/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

This is not technically true. There are some texts, like Medieval Fantasy as Performance by Michael Cramer (Valgard Stonecleaver, IIRC).

https://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Fantasy-Performance-Creative-Anachronism/dp/0810869950

You can find it here! https://www.amazon.com/Pennsic-War-Largest-Role-Playing-Festival/dp/B07R6PKR45/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=off+the+cuf&qid=1557300227&s=gateway&sr=8-1

^ This. Link > https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R6PKR45

The Medieval Tailor's Assistant, 2nd Edition: Common Garments 1100-1480 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0896762955/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_taa_D3EVCbAA33E5Q

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Heraldry-Stephen-Slater/dp/0754810623 There you go.