I work at a grocery store and we’re required to wear slip-resistant shoes. I thought it was a standard thing among any walking/running shoes so I just wore some cheap Nikes for a few weeks. Turns out (after slipping all over the place in the deli’s kitchen) that my shoes were not, in fact, slip-resistant. Got a few laughs and a note from my manager.
I recently bought actual slip-resistant shoes and holy hell! It’s wild. I was able to mop up spills and not almost break an ankle. The bottoms of the new shoes vs the Nikes are clearly different, but I don’t see how it contributes to slip-resistance. If a surface is slippery, it’s slippery…so why am I not falling over in my new shoes? Is it a spray? The type of material? Witchcraft?
In: Other
The sole is made of an especially soft and finely treaded rubber that allows more contact with the surface, increasing friction and grip between the two.
Tread pattern is also a factor, slip resistant shoes might have deeper and more numerous treads that increase the surface area available to make contact with the ground.
It works along the same idea as how treads on tires keep you from hydroplaning, if I’m not mistaken.
You have a bunch of grooves on the bottom which help channel water and bits of food and stuff so that you aren’t just standing on an entire layer of water. This, like with tires, sacrifices a little bit of traction on dry ground due to the lack of surface area, though usually isn’t really detrimental.
There are two aspects:
1) Friction depends on both materials – even if the ground is slippery, it will be less slippery wrt some materials.
2) Profile can prevent a water film from forming – others have already explained that well.
Ok, from what I’m reading in other answers, there’s a tiny layer of fluid that makes a surface slippery. Regular shoes sit on top of this layer and slide all over. Slip-resistant shoes have little channels and treads that move the fluid layer and let the rubber sole make contact with the ground creating traction
I used to be a bartender and it blew my mind how many times the girls I worked with would hurt themselves and spill drinks slipping everywhere. They refused to get the special shoes because they didn’t look cute enough. There’s probably a market for that
Rubber
Description
Siping is a process of cutting thin slits across a rubber surface to improve traction in wet or icy conditions. Siping was invented and patented in 1923 under the name of John F. Sipe. The story told on various websites is that, in the 1920s, Sipe worked in a slaughterhouse and grew tired of slipping on the wet floors.
Same principal with slip resistant shoes. Look at the tread pattern.
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