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What are Slip Resistant Shoes?

SafeShoes.com has filtered the available slip-resistant shoes to include the best styles, brands and soles.  All shoes on our website have soles that meet a minimum standard of .6 Wet or .35 Oily-Wet, using either the James Test, Brungraber Mark II Test, or the new Satra Test.  That being said, no “slip-resistant shoe” is “slip-proof”.  Test results are real, but they are done in a laboratory with laboratory floor materials and specific oils and water.  Naturally, these are not exactly the same as the environment in which you work.  Therefore, when wearing any slip-resistant shoes for the first time always do so with caution until your body gets used to the grip your new shoes have in your work environment.

Slip-Resistant Shoes have specially designed soles that provide traction in slippery environments.  The extra traction comes from the pattern of the sole design and also the compound of the sole material.  While there is no standard for slip-resistance, the AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TESTING AND MATERIALS (ASTM) has certified the relatively new SATRA “full shoe” method of testing slip-resistance, even though there is no numeric, minimum standard that defines what slip-resistance is.  Sole Slip-Resistance is tested, typically by independent testing labs or other certified testing labs using 3 methods—The James Test, which is the oldest and seldom used these days by shoe manufacturers and testing labs; The Brungraber Mark II Test, which for years was the accepted testing method and is still used by many testing labs and manufacturers; and SATRA, which is the new testing method that has been certified by ASTM (F2913-11) as the accepted method for testing slip-resistance.  SATRA is also the accepted testing method in Canada and Europe.

Browse our Slip Resistant Shoes:

Slip-Resistant Shoes for Men

Slip-Resistant Shoes for Women

If you have any questions, please leave us a comment!

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Finding Slip-Resistant Shoes

The important thing to know about slippery environments is that they are all different; and they are so diverse, it is very difficult to design a test that simulates the slip-resistance of all environments.  

The reason is there is a multitude of floor surface materials and finishes, and in addition, you have a multitude of materials that are on the floor, and these materials interact with the floor surfaces to produce the slippery condition.  Moreover, there are some materials that clog up the pattern of the sole or coat the sole, and they also cause slippery conditions.  You have wet environments, including liquids of all kinds including water, oils, and chemicals, and you have dry environments including dusty materials like corn starch, talcum, and graphite-like materials.  Another tough environment is materials that are on the floor that clog up the soles, like food materials in food processing plants or residue material, sometimes called “drool”, in injection molding environments.  Some of this material is small enough to get stuck in the grove of the sole of a shoe; and because the material is hard, it causes the shoe to slip since the shoe’s sole can’t grip the floor.  .

While there are two major tests in the US for testing the slip-resistance of a shoe (Brungraber II or III and James Test), none is really good enough to predict the slip-resistance in your area unless it is a simple wet surface.  I maintain the only real way to determine if the sole is going to be slip-resistant enough is to test the shoe’s sole in the environment.  Most manufacturers and even some safety shoe dealers will do free wear-tests; so if you are looking to subcontract your safety shoe program, ask them to do some “wear-tests” for you before you start the program.  The Brungraber Test (Mark I, Mark II, and the Mark III) is the newer of the tests, but the United States Postal Service uses .5 on the James Test to determine their slip-resistant specification.

In summary, there is not a standard ASTM, slip-resistance test for shoes or shoe soles; and even if there was, you would still want to wear-test the product in the environment to really determine if it was slip-resistant.  There are just too many different slippery environments to have a standard.

There is an excellent discussion of all the different Slip-Resistant testing machines in use, which demonstrates why there is no standard.  The website, created by Jay Preston, a Certified Safety Professional and Professional Engineer, is good information.  And Mr. Preston is a member of the ASTM F-13 committee on Safety and Traction of Footwear.  Check out his website. http://www.safetybiz.com/Sliptest.htm

You can view our selection of slip resistant shoes here.