Shoe Sole Materials

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Al 18 years ago

Two years ago I bought a pair of expensive shoes made by ecco. These are well made shoes worthy of the price. I have one big problem with them, they are useless when the temperature goes below 32F.

What do I mean? Two things:

1: The soles become hard as rock and no longer give a cushioning effect.
2: The rock hard soles do not grip the ice. I've taken a couple of tumbles so far.

Have I ever had shoes that performed well under these cirumstances? Yes! The shoes had what was advertised as "crepe soles." They maintained resilency under cold conditions and they gripped the ice much better than the ecco shoes.

The problem is that I no longer see such shoes on sale. Granted, the soles used to wear out quite rapidly, but that is my choice to make. I rather wear out 4 pairs of shoes at $50 a pop than have one pair at $200 be rather useless in cold conditions.

How cold? Well, this morning, it was 16F. And I slipped again.

Any advice other than stay out of the cold?

Al

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Jim 18 years ago

I'd suggest you learn how to do searches on the internet, with something like Google.

You can look here and see that it is possible to buy crepe soled men's shoes.

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Let your fingers do the walking. You don't need other people to do this for you at all.

Good luck.

There are also a number of devices shoe stores sell which slip onto your shoes and give you mechanical traction from steel inserts or coils to cut down the problem of sliding. I bought some cheap at Marshall's last week.

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metalengr 18 years ago

Jim already mentioned slip on devices for shoes. Outdoor stores like Cabela's sell a variety of gizmos for winter walking.

If you look at

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and search under "ice shoes" you will see brands like STABILicers, Get-A-Grip, Yaktrax, and Korkers Korkeez Ice Cleats. They also have boot chains for just $12.95.

If you look at

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and search under "ice shoes" you will see brands like STABILicers, and duenorth Everyday Traction Aids. You even can buy replacement STABILicer cleats in packs of fifty for $5.

Pittsburgh Pete

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Al 18 years ago

Al

Yup, I do have a pair that works just great for that purpose, that is, when the WHOLE area is covered with ice and/or snow. But my morning walk takes me through the center of town where I encounter concrete sidewalks. That really does a number on the add-ons. I know, take them off and then put them on again, (insert recursion here). I do my two mile walk in 35 minutes. I don't want to be slowing down for apparatus manipulation.

And as far as the other poster who chided me not using Google. I do know how to use it. I've actually used search engines that required entries in Boolean logic for them to work. I thought this might be a nice forum where someone could explain to me why the switch from shoes with crepe soles has taken place, for one. Alas!

Al

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atomweaver 18 years ago

Al wrote in news:AuU5j.19385$t31.4094@trnddc02:

Doc Marten's Air Ware. Their sole is soft and grippy down to at least -10 degF (the lowest I've had to use them). Good in the lab, too; slip resistant in oily situations, and stain and chemical resistant, especially if you maintain the leather upper with 'dubbin'. I work with a fair number of low Mw acrylates, and its the only kind shoe I've used which doesn't allow acrylic acid and/or hexanediol diacrylate to wick instantly into the leather upper. Thats typically a quick way to ruin a good pair of shoes.

Regards R. David Zopf

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Jim 18 years ago

There was nothing in your complaining initial post that asked for an expla;nation of the switch from crepe soles.

Stop lying and complaining.

You had been given a multipage link to crepe soled shoes to buy.

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Al 18 years ago

Thanks for the info. I looked it up and it looks good. FYI it's spelled Air Weir (homophone).

Al

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