Most winter boots too slippery: researchers
90% of models inadequately grip ice, snow
Most winter boots on the market do a lousy job of preventing slips on ice and snow, according to researchers at a Toronto centre that rehabilitates victims of serious accidents.
The Toronto Rehabilitation Institute worked out a new rating system for winter boots. Then it tested 98 models of both safety and casual boots and found that 90 per cent didn’t meet even their minimum standard.
Toronto Rehab says Ontario emergency wards treat 21,000 injuries each winter caused by slipping on ice.
“It’s nasty if you break your hip. You may never be mobile again if you’re older,” said the institute’s research director, Geoff Fernie. “With head injuries, some people die of it.
“A lot of elderly people choose not to go out,” for fear of falling, he said. “So they get no exercise and they get depressed and isolated.”
The r esearchers al s o found some good news, as manufacturers are developing better ice-gripping soles.
But for now it’s a slippery slope.
Ratings are posted online at ratemytreads.com.
It’s a simple test. Volunteers walk across an icecovered surface that starts level and is gradually tilted until they slip. If the boots can grip an incline of at least seven degrees — the slope of a wheelchair ramp at the corner of a sidewalk — they rate one snowflake. They get two snowflakes if they can climb 11 degrees, and three snowflakes for 15 degrees.
So far, the best rating is one snowflake.
“These people are very seriously on to something,” said Barry Wellar, an emeritus professor of urban transportation at the University of Ottawa. “Not everybody has proper footwear. They may think they have, but they don’t.”
The rubber in summer tires becomes too hard to grip in winter “and exactly the same thing holds with shoes ... They may be warm but if the material gets hard like a rock, down you go,” he said.
Top performers so far include the Sperry men’s Cold Bay Arctic Grip Vibram (in first place, climbing 10 degrees), Dakota men’s and women’s safety boots with Green Diamond soles, Sperry women’s Powder Valley Arctic Grip Vibram, and Windriver Yoko men’s hiking boots.