These winter days it’s shoes with rubber soles that dominate on our feet, in many cases. It’s worth thinking about the fact that these may need more time to dry than leather soled shoes. Below I explain why.

 

The pro with rubber soles is obviously that they tolerate moisture better than leather soles, both that they wear less and that they do not allow moisture to pass through from the ground. But, the fact that they do not emit moisture from below, of course also means that it’s the same thing the other way around. That’s why some may experience that your feet gets a bit warmer and more sweaty in shoes with a full rubber soles (maybe not a big problem during the winter months, for natural reasons), than in leather soled shoes that allow moisture to evaporate more and “breathes”. However, in both cases, most of the moisture from the feet (usually the feet release between 5-10 cl of sweat per day) is gathered in the shoe, and it’s when we take them off that they can seriously begin to dry.

Shoes with full Wensum rubber soles.

However, in a shoe with a full rubber sole, the moisture has no chance of disappearing underneath, as it has on a shoe with leather sole. The rubber means that the moisture either has to evaporate towards the sides or inwards in the shoe. If you take care of your shoes properly and have shoe trees inserted, it takes a bit extra time for the shoes to dry (it’s wrong as often stated that shoe trees in wood make the shoes dry faster, what the tree does is to ensure that the shoes retains their shape while they dries, and wood allows the moisture to be released and can absorb some of it, but a shoe without a shoe tree dries faster though with the big problem that the leather then shrinks and starts to crease heavily).

If the shoes are really damp and have rubber soles, it may take some time for the sole, cork filling, etc to dry up completely. Sometimes longer than the day you usually say that shoes should rest between use. If you have the possibility, it may be an idea to let the rubber soled shoes used for long days in the winter rest two days before using them again (just like a leather soled shoe that has been in rain may need an extra day to dry completely) so that they don’t risk being worn damp which increases wear and tear. As always, no danger if it happens occasionally, but may be good avoid doing too often if possible.

Elegant version of the sole type often referred to as Dainite sole. Dainite, however, is actually the brand name of their most famous manufacturer, they call these soles “studded” for the ring pattern.