Peace at home... via clean boots. What do you use?

[bigtiller]

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Never really found boot or shoe soles with deep lugs good for anything but picking up mud and debris.

The best sole I have ever found for a workbook is the neoprene cork sole on Red Wing model 8111 among others. It's difficult to accept unless you have worn boots with that sole. It's quiet on almost any surface. Has great traction and is very long wearing and comfortable. Oil resistance is good and doesn't slip on wet pavement.

Very easy to clean.


Men's 8111 Iron Ranger 6" Boot | Red Wing Heritage


TBS

You made me go look! I wear the 8" 953. I never thought the deep lugged boot fad would have lasted this long.

Men's 953 Electrical Hazard SuperSole^(R) 8-inch Boot | Red Wing Work Boots

 

[two_bit_score]

Perhaps you forget that prior to the 1970's most work boots were smooth soled. Lugged boots tear up grass so that's one reason to wear flat soles. No particular advantage for an equipment operator working in a cab either.

Exactly, all shoes are smooth soled if actually working in real mud and muck. Sorta like all tires become slicks in mud. Quit buying the wrong type of shoes, old timers all wore smooth soles for ease of cleanup and lighter weight (packing around 15lbs of mud on the bottoms of shoe treads isn't easy for a long day of work). Even the muck boots from 30 years ago had a relatively smooth sole, generally just a pattern in the surface of the rubber, no deeper than a 16th of an inch.

All the deep lugged soles for work boots nowadays are just marketing hype for looks.

TBS

 

[two_bit_score]

You made me go look! I wear the 8" 953. I never thought the deep lugged boot fad would have lasted this long.

Men's 953 Electrical Hazard SuperSole^(R) 8-inch Boot | Red Wing Work Boots

So many buy the idea that those sole lugs will grip and they just can't.

I wear RedWing 1178's and have for years and years. I'm looking for some dress shoes with that same sole.

TBS

 

[Oaktree]

I spent part of my youth living in Hawaii where the Japanese tradition of removing shoes whenever entering a residence is the cultural norm. Ever since then I find it odd to walk into a home without removing my shoes. We have our house slippers right at the entrance as well as racks to store our outside shoes.

Never knew it was an oriental custom, but I was brought up that you didn't wear shoes in the house. I'm sure it came from the fact that both of my parents worked (kind of rare in the 50s & 60s), and my mother didn't want to have to clean up constantly after 4 kids, so to me it's always felt weird to wear shoes in someone's home. I have known people who got quite offended if I either took mine off going into their house or asked them to do the same in mine.
If I'm doing something where I'll be going in & out a bunch of times I'll just use some sort of slip-on shoes outside (or go barefoot...something I do whenever I can anyway).

 

[Zerk]

Perhaps you forget that prior to the 1970's most work boots were smooth soled. Lugged boots tear up grass so that's one reason to wear flat soles. No particular advantage for an equipment operator working in a cab either.

Ya, and one time we didn't have peniciln, air conditioning, or color tv.


Working on concrete, lugs may not provide as much of an advantage. Non lugs may have more surface area too. Wouldn't have to worry about mud then either.

But for general purpose living, I like lugs.

 

[IslandTractor]

Ya, and one time we didn't have peniciln, air conditioning, or color tv.


Working on concrete, lugs may not provide as much of an advantage. Non lugs may have more surface area too. Wouldn't have to worry about mud then either.

But for general purpose living, I like lugs.

Lugged work boots are not total fads like hula hoops but neither are they a sea change in work gear where everyone gives up their horse drawn carriage and buys a truck. I'd compare them to all wheel drive. Certainly useful and even necessary in some situations but with drawbacks and false promises as well. Non lugged work boots have been used for many generations so it is silly to suggest that lugged boots solved a problem nobody could deal with before. I can see that a forester working in the woods in winter would clearly benefit from lugged boots for traction. I don't see such obvious benefits for a truck driver or factory worker or construction worker. Lugged boots are here to stay but not likely in the proportion they are sold today. I'd liken it to all wheel drive cars being successfully marketed to people who would be better off with two wheel drive and a set of winter tires. Cheaper, safer, more economical to run. The AWD and lugged boot trend will level off and revert to something closer to historic norms.

 

[Sysop]

Nobody really said they're a fad that will go away, just that they're a bad idea in most of the cases they're used. Farm life is just simply one of those situations. They pack up with mud, become more slick than a smooth soled shoe, and get ya in trouble with the lady of the house. They're surely not good stuff like AWD. Perhaps comparable to the "drift mode" in the new Focus RS, or the Line-Lock on the new Camaro or Mustang, useless in the real world and there as a feel-good for the owner.

 

[Zerk]

Unless you are wearing leather soles, all boots are lugged some what. We are using the term to desribe to bigger lugs we see today.

I disagree their use will go down.

One advantage of big lugs is they can wear and still have lug. If I worked all day on concrete instead of concrete and gravel, lower lugs might provide more surface area. I tried one pair, that was marketed for concrete, I didn't thin they held up long.

Even tennis shoes have lots of grooves, they are just tight.

They are not making car tires with tiny lugs or grooves, for a reason.

 

[Zerk]

Surprised no one mentioned rugs or matts, or I missed it. I think that is how they did it in the old days, before we all have better home and gardens homes.

 

[ProjectKing]

Going inside the house with a pair of muddy boots is a one-time deal. (You married guys know exactly what I mean.)

Shoe scrappers and boot brushes don't work. Water hose is too much trouble. I simply slip mine off at the door and step into a pair of house shoes that I leave at the door for that purpose.

Exactly! I wear pull on Justin's most of the time. They pop right off. Or a pair of boots with speed hooks. Much faster than fussing with trying to clean boots.