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SoleStridePath

Check

Read the outsole

The pattern on the bottom of the shoe: how much of it touches the ground, how deep the channels are, and whether the seller photographed it at all. It is the only grip evidence twelve of these thirteen listings offer.

What you need (4)

  • The sole photograph from the listing, viewed as large as it will go
  • The listing text, to see which grip word was used
  • A second listing to compare against, since patterns mean little in isolation
  • The shoe itself, later, to check the pattern against the photograph

5 steps

  1. Find the sole photograph, or note its absence

    Most listings include one. Some do not. A grip claim made without a photograph of the sole is a grip claim with no supporting evidence of any kind, and that combination is worth recording before you go any further.

  2. Estimate how much of the sole actually contacts the ground

    Look at the proportion of dark, raised material against the recessed channels between it. A sole that is mostly channel has less contact area than one that is mostly pad. Neither is better in the abstract and this site does not rank them.

  3. Look at the channel depth and where the channels run

    Channels that run to the edge of the sole can carry liquid away from under the shoe. Channels that dead-end in the middle cannot. This is visible in a good photograph and is described in the text of exactly none of these listings.

  4. Check whether any test method is named anywhere

    One listing in this catalog names a standards body. Twelve do not. Look for a standard number, a laboratory, or a stated coefficient. If the listing offers only an adjective, then the photograph is the whole of the evidence and you have already seen it.

  5. When the shoe arrives, look at the sole again

    Compare the real sole against the photograph, since photographs are lit to flatter. Then look at it again after a few months. A tread pattern is a starting condition, and no bench test, certified or otherwise, was run on a worn one.

A tread pattern is a starting condition. No test, certified or otherwise, was ever run on a worn one.

What it tells you (4)

  • The contact pattern and channel layout, which is the only grip evidence most of these listings provide.
  • Whether the seller photographed the sole at all.
  • Whether any test method or standards body is named, which one listing here does.
  • How the tread has changed on a shoe you have already been wearing.

What it does not tell you (4)

  • Nothing about whether you will slip. No sole cancels a wet floor and this site makes no statement about falls.
  • Nothing about the rubber compound, which is invisible in a photograph and named by almost no listing here.
  • Nothing comparable to a laboratory coefficient of friction, which is measured on a rig and not by eye.
  • Nothing about your health, your balance or your body, none of which this site addresses.

Claim words this bears on (2)

  • Non-slip and slip resistant — A published test method exists — ASTM F2913, which measures dynamic coefficient of friction on a whole-shoe rig — and nothing obliges any seller to run it. One listing in this catalog names a standards body; twelve use the adjective alone.
  • Water resistant and waterproof — Published test methods for water repellency and penetration exist and are used across the textile trade. No listing in this catalog cites one, states a rating, or explains which of the two words it has chosen.

Sources (3)