what are shoe soles made of

 

The most common material found in the soles of shoes are man-made plastics, usually polyethylene terephthalate (PET), while the less common materials used in sole construction include milk proteins and various types of rubber that often contain natural oils.

One element which may be easily identified is an animal-based ingredient, typically leather tanned using a chromium salt. The shoe industry typically uses hides from cows for making shoe soles. It was once necessary to use horse or bull hide but now it is possible to use automobile tires or even plastic if desired.

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Other known materials commonly used are metal, rubber, wood veneers and glass fiber cloth. There are also many kinds of plastics that are used in the composition of shoe sole material. These materials are used as a result of their elasticity, durability, and flexibility. The reason why one particular type of material would be selected over another is essentially due to the process (sometimes referred to as "lasts") that is being used to construct its contours.

For example, if the shoe is being constructed in a stitch-down process, the soles must be thick enough to carry the stitches permanently without tearing or coming apart. The thickness required by the stitch-down process is substantially greater than that of a stitched-on sole. The processes are outlined in the table below.

Procedures for attaching shoe soles to uppers and lasts:

Knowing which type of material is used to create a particular shoe sole, or knowing how a sole is attached to the upper, helps when determining how much weight can be placed on it. For example, if one were considering wearing metal toe boots, then that person may want to consider whether they are being made with metal material or metal-plastic composites and whether they would be considered safe for heavy work.

The shoe industry has the following classifications for soles:

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Approximately 70 percent of all shoes made in the world are manufactured using acetate and EVA plastic. The soft, pliable properties of these materials help designers create shoes with a broad range of styles, colors, and patterns.

Though most people associate shoe soles with leather, latex rubber is used almost exclusively for non-slip sole molding. The primary benefit to using this type of material is that it does not absorb moisture and thus performs better in wet conditions than other types of materials. This is especially important for areas in which water or precipitation can quickly penetrate and cause problems. For example, it is common for footwear used in hospitals to have latex rubber soles.

Highly industrialized nations like the United States have developed a great deal of technology around shoe soles. This is especially true over the last century where numerous innovations to both manufacturing and design have taken place in order to create new types of sole technology or improve on existing ones.

This has been driven by several factors including improvements in chemical production, advances in technologies like molecular structures and nano-technology, and a greater understanding of how these materials interact with each other when combined.