2January 2022
Leather Vs Rubber Sole Shoes Which Shoe Soles
Are Better [0:00:00]
Rubber sole versus leather sole. What’s the difference? Which one is better? Gentlemen, that’s the subject of today’s
video. [Music]
So, I had this great question asked me the other day. The guy is, “Antonio, what is better the
leather sole or the rubber sole?” There’s advantages, disadvantages to each
and my answer to him is it depends. I know, not exactly what you’re looking
for, but understand it does depend on your financial position, how much money do you
have to spend on those shoes. Also, what is your personal and your professional
need and the styles that you like the brands that you’re going and shopping at where
are they actually manufactured and depending on if they’re using leather or they’re
using rubber, are you going to be comfortable with the advantages disadvantages of each
of the materials. And, all that goes into play to you making
the right purchasing decision. So, guys, let me say straight up, focus in
on the function and focus in on the fashion.
Those two things if you understand the advantages
and disadvantages when it comes to those particular issues right there you will be able to choose
the right shoes for you. But first off, let’s start with a little
bit of history. So, when it comes to shoes and leather, understand
that this is where it started. Why? Leather from various animals because of the
density and the properties of the leather, it simply worked.
It was durable. You could walk on these thousands and thousands
of times and it would protect your feet. It had just enough cushions that it just simply
worked. Then, about two hundred years ago, we saw
rubber hit the manufacturing scene. And the big thing about this is it they were
able to take materials which were kind of a luxury material, materials that were expensive
and they were able to replace them and many times with various types of rubber.
And all of a sudden, they were able to get
exactly and even better than many other properties that leather had at a fraction of the price. And that's key, because of the cost difference
right here of the actually goods going into the material and what they were building here,
all of a sudden they were able to lower the price. So, you saw a lot of lower-end manufacturers
go after this immediately simply because they were able to make something that cost a lot
less.
Now, this is the problem with rubber is that
we saw because they were going for the low cost they actually changed up the manufacturing
process. So, when we look at this right here, you see
stitching in on and around this. On a lot of the rubber soles out there you
will see no stitching because they are glued on. What they use is this like really thick cement
glue that is specifically designed to keep the rubber onto basically the upper part of
the shoe, they connect that with glue. The problem with this is it it's just going
to overtime you can have two shoe fall apart. It's less costly to actually build it this
way and that's why a lot of rubber soles get the bad name.
But, it's not so much the sole, but it's the
construction process that's used. So, if you're able to find a rubber sole like
this one right here that actually has stitching on it, you actually in a sense you're getting
a good quality shoe that is kind of getting rid of that gluing process.
When you find something like that, you can
actually get a great deal. People talk about look for leather on the
sole. Well, that's a mark of quality because if
you're using leather here, it has to be sewn on. So that's a general basically rule of thumb
that if you see a leather sole usually the dress shoe is going to be of higher quality,
but that's not always the case. One of the reasons people love these rubber
soles and we're going to get into the function aspect of it is because they actually have
a lot more grip right off.
After you've worn these for five minutes you
could, you know, walk through a little bit of water and you're not going to slip and
slide all over the place. If anyone has ever worn leather soles right
off, you have — I don't — I have slipped on my butt and it's something that drives
me nuts about shoes like this.
A lot of them though what they’re going
to do is these manufacturers they'll bring in a small strip of rubber right in here on
the heel, sometimes you'll see it go right across here and that can actually help with
giving it a bit more traction. But, when it comes to actually getting the
best traction, you want to have more surface area so it's going to have a full rubber sole. Another advantage though for these guys when
it comes to the function aspect of this is that I can get this resoled. Now, again, if this was stitched on you can
get this resoled sometimes as well, but not always.
But, here whenever you see a Blake stitch
you see a Goodyear welt, all of a sudden, boom, you're able to get this resoled. So, when you're looking at boots. This boot right here, notice there is no stitching
on it. This shoe right here it's not going to be
able to be resoled. This one is going to once you’ve actually
worn through the boot. But a lot of these — by the way these by
the way these rubber soles here depending on what material they use, this could last
for years. So, I’m not saying that you have to stay
away from something like this, I just want you to be aware of the disadvantage here versus
this rubber sole and this one by the way is Thursday Boots and they’ve got this stitching
right here with the Goodyear welt. [0:05:00]
You notice this one right here, another dress shoe. This company is Alden, they've got the stitching
again and Goodyear welt right in here, so this one leather.
And as you can see one of the things I like
about leather is it really actually does start to get some traction. Once it's been torn up a bit all of a sudden
you've got this surface area. Now, when it comes — we talked about the
functionality of it and understanding that, yes, what I love about the leather it can
be resoled. But, understand the fashion aspect a lot of
people are going stay away from rubber because they feel, oh, it's going to be a little bit
more cumbersome it's going to be a little bit too thick.
Now, not exactly, notice these shoes right
here? These are Paul Evans. They actually made these. And look at that profile, it's – it’s
a great profile. And they did it very well with the rubber
sole. And this one right here has a Blake stitch,
so you could send it in get it resoled. Now, some of you guys may be wondering, Antonio,
I've got these great shoes and you know they've got the leather sole on them, I love them. And this right here is just not giving me
enough traction which this by the way is made by Allen Edmonds.
You can actually find — go to a cobbler and
get these or you can order them online. I'll put a link down in the description. And you can actually purchase something like
this, slap it right on use a – this type of cement glue on here and you could actually
add your own rubber after the fact. So, this is something it's going to add a
bit of height on it, but for a pair of Chukkas like this casual, it's not really going to
make a difference. I would say if you're going to do this on
a pair of dress shoes, you want to go with the type of rubber sole that isn't going to
add much to the height. There are some of these out there you will
see they'll make for boots, in particular they've got a lot more traction. And you want to be careful of you don't want
to put that on a pair of dress shoes.
But, getting back to the question, what is
better leather or rubber? Guys, depends on your needs, but just understand
the difference understand what you're looking for. If you don't want to go slipping and sliding
when you buy those shoes right off, you know, then maybe go for a rubber sole if you can
find it made that it's been stitched using either a Goodyear welt or a Blake stitch,
but if not look for the leather, always a sign of quality. All right, gents now it's your turn. I want to hear from you down the comments
are you a leather sole man are, you a rubber sole man, or are you going to go with whatever
works for you and your particular needs.
I'd love to hear from you guys down in the
comments. And that's it guys. Take care. I appreciate you. I appreciate the community we built here at
Real Men Real Style. And I'm excited about 2018, what is coming
up here soon. I can tell you can tell you I'm working on
improving my videos creating some new stuff that you've never seen before. That's it guys. Take care. I’ll see you in the next video. Bye.
[0:07:31] End of Audio