Abstract

Two wear trials have been made to compare the comfort of men’s shoes having various types of uppers. In the first trial, the results of questionnaires show that a majority of the wearers preferred the shoes with highly permeable leather uppers rather than those with synthetic uppers, whether the latter were water vapour permeable or not. The answers indicate that this was mainly because the shoes with leather uppers were more comfortable, in that they conformed better to foot shapes and because the feet felt neither too warm nor too cold. The synthetic uppers were adjudged to be easier to clean and maintained a better appearance but these advantages were outweighed by the greater comfort of the shoes with leather uppers.

Objective measurements of moisture uptakes in the second trial show that highly permeable leather uppers retain less perspiration moisture than Corfarn, and appreciably less than the impermeable synthetic despite the greater absorptive capacity of the leather. The results thus indicate that the feet in these leather uppers were in a drier environment than those in Corfam or impermeable synthetic uppers, and although the subjective preferences were stated to be based on fit and temperature, it is likely that the greater comfort of the leather uppers was to some extent due to the fact that the feet were drier.