Hands On Experience with Rubber/Rubber-soled shoes: Just Why we Love them.

I sometimes wonder what the effect of each passing trend pose, and what, if there are any lessons to be drawn when the trend must have taken its bow in our faces. A lot of people are trend stimulants  being that, they embrace whatever trend that inventors put forward to them. For many in this category, the creativity in every product draws an attention that is equal or sequel to it it. Hence, to take  a product at face value comes with a price that is paid after the desire it initially generated has long been quenched.

My white rubber shoe i bought early 2012.

Rubber shoes have long been in existence, but no better time were they widely appreciated than in the past year. Almost everyone had it, albeit the very elderly ones and few people with biased mind towards anything or all things rubber. This perhaps is because, the actual formality and style at which shoes are made, are often as a result of the determinable factors (material of the soles) that are put together. As a result, a traditional dress shoe naturally feature a leather sole. As such, rubber soled shoes tend to be less formal, and are usually designed for comfort or mere specific needs.

A Zhoni leather shoe with a rubber sole

Why rubber-soled shoes?
Yes! Why rubber-soled shoes? I get this question every other day. And don't ask me again, I love rubber shoes, or shoes with rubber sole. As a truth, rubber-sole shoes give a far less formal appearance, and they are are built for performance-oriented purposes and for specific sports or casual occasions  Thus, rubber-sole can be said to be primarily designed for traction.

The Pros.
For starters, rubber shoes can actually cost more than leather or other equivalents. This may perhaps be because, the cost of raw rubber, the molding process, finishing and handling are all high costing resources, hence, the typical rubber shoe might up a leather shoe by at least N1,500-2,000.

As observed in the aforementioned, rubber soles have a high traction than most shoes. It has better appeals.

A vast majority of rubber-shoes are waterproof. They have the natural ability to resist water penetration. Leather shoes cannot do this. 

Rubber shoes are very comfortable for walking, and very easy to wear. This is chiefly because, the absorb the foot strike impacts better. For me, rubber shoes rock and does not necessarily require that you wear socks before you done them.

Rubber shoes don't make noise or constrict with the floor/ground when walking.

For all practical purposes, rubber  shoes/rubber soles seem to be the clear winner. And it leaves me musing if in truth, there any reasons/benefits for choosing leather over rubber? Clearly, there is none. So I believe!    

The Likely Cons?
With my appraisals thus far, you might wonder if ever I'll come to this, but then, nothing good is free from sin. But for its aesthetic appeal, both the shoe, the wearer and most pertinently, the foot, clumping around in rubber shoes is intransigent  Rubber shoes are seeming transmitters of heat, and they are superficially in defunct with the skin if worn consistently. Believe it or not, this is an adverse effect, but that is when you make wearing rubber shoes your spot priority.

A friend of mine was like, "sure, i like rubber shoes for bad weather, but for regular times, Omo mehn, na leather shoe ooo... a good leather shoe is more elegant, beautiful, striking and more authoritative.!" 

Adding to that, lots of rubber shoes and rubber-soled ones are mere works of art. They crack easily. Rubber will crack first before a decent quality leather sole will do. The rubber naturally lacks the fiber that keep material intact upon stress like leather would do at molecular level.

My Conclusion.
For the regular person who may have bone or feet related problems, rubber shoes and rubber soled shoes may be a better solution but that is not to say it acts upright in that regard.  Leather shoes on the one hand may be for the uptight reason of smart and collate dressing. One can not appear any smarter on leather shoes than he/she would on rubber shoes or rubber-soled shoes. At the end of the day, it buoys down to choice and perhaps, an individuals taste and dress inclinations.