I thought about that, but I don't think it's actually that similar. HPMOR is at least supposed to be educational (though I think that's somewhat dubious [0]). This is basically an in-joke for people who read Thinking Fast and Slow or similar. The character should have talked to someone who was in the military about the importance of high-quality footwear.

[0]: Though carrying 4 combat application tourniquets in your clothing at all times is probably a good idea. The part about time pressure and disregarding time-wasting social activities in emergency situations is also reasonable[1], but the characters should have come up with contingency plans and gone over checklists and emergency conditions with the authority figures beforehand to prevent them getting in the way.

[1]: i.e. if you got stabbed and are bleeding out, don't tell someone "it's fine" (it's not fine at all) and let them go first because it's "polite".