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Know Your Soles: The 8 Most Common Options

Know Your Soles: The 8 Most Common Options

David Shuck
February 18, 2026

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Know Your Soles: The 8 Most Common Options

From commando, to Dainite, to leather, we explore the eight most common options for soles that you would find on quality footwear.

David Shuck

If you haven’t heard the hacky salesman pitch about buying quality on what separates you from the earth, you’re about to hear it now: “Spend money on what goes between you and the ground: mattresses, shoes, tires, etc.”

In footwear, at least, there are a lot of options for what can come between you and the pavement. Here’s a rundown of the most common sole types you’ll encounter in welted & stitchdown shoes.

Commando

The Commando or Lugged sole is your classic hiking/workboot rubber outsole. Known for its thick lugged tread, the commando sole offers great traction and weather resistance, but it can have quite a chunky profile.

Born out of tragedy, Italian inventor Vitale Bramante created the sole after six of his friends died in a climbing accident in 1935. He thought their deaths might have been avoided had they been equipped with better footwear. He patented the design and soon founded the company Vibram that would sell the soles all over the world.

Alden x Lost & Found Indy Boot Saddle Tan Calfskin 39640, available at Lost & Found for $750.

Unmarked Chelsea Boot in Black Bison, available for $490 from Unmarked.

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Wedge

The wedge sole screams iconic mid-century workwear. Most commonly seen on work boots from the likes of Red Wing & Thorogood, the wedge sole combines traction and stability while remaining relatively lightweight. They also lend shorter folks a couple of extra inches.

Most often seen in off-white or black, wedge soles can technically come in any color. A famous wedged sole unit like this is the Vibram Christy (#4014), which is typically used to replace this kind of sole.

Red Wing 875 Moc Toe Boot in Oro Legacy, available for $329.99 from REVOLVR.

Thorogood American Heritage – 8″ Tobacco Moc Toe – MAXWear Wedge™, available for $275 from Railcar.

Dainite

The refined cousin of the Commando sole, Dainite is a British company that makes low-profile rubber soles with recessed rubber studs.

Dainite soles were traditionally seen on British country-type shoes, but they’ve since become a versatile staple in the heritage shoemaking scene, providing a decent amount of traction without the bulk of a commando or traditional lugged sole.

Caswell Boot Co. Carver Boot in Cinnamon Waxed Flesh, available for $429.99 at Caswell Boot Co.

Unmarked Zip Boot Camel Suede, available for $603 from Brooklyn Clothing.

Rubber Camp

The camp sole is one of the most casual options out there, and it oozes a preppy New England vibe. It’s made of rubber and commonly covered with little dots that look like asterisks, so you get a good bit of traction while remaining lightweight. They even take a large plug from the back of the sole to keep the weight down and the shoe flexible.

They’re most commonly found on hand-sewn moccasins from makers like Rancourt, Yuketen, and Easymoc.

Easymoc Camp Moc in Honey Crazy Horse, available for $315 from American Trench.

Easymoc Cozymoc in Toast Suede, available for $285 from American Trench.

Cork Nitrile

Cork nitrile is a rubber composite workboot sole that still has an exceptionally sleek profile. Mixing pieces of cork with the rubber saves some weight in the sole without losing much in the way of durability.

Cork soles usually lack a tread and thus lack decent traction. But where cork shines is its decent impermeability due to the presence of suberin, a waxy substance in its cell walls that makes it moisture-resistant, rot-resistant, and buoyant (hence why it’s used for wine bottles, too).

Indiana Jones famously wore the Alden Indy boot. And while there’s no way you could outrun a giant stone ball on a set of these soles in real life. That said, cork soles look great, and the enduring popularity of the Indy boot probably means the lack of traction isn’t too much to bear for most folks. Also, lots of old Red Wing heads swear the Iron Ranger was better when it had cork nitrile soles before the brand discontinued them in favor of Vibram soles.

Alden ‘Indy’ 405 Moc Toe Boot, available for $702 from Iron Shop Provisions.

Plantation Crepe

Crepe rubber is rubber directly from the source: latex coagulated straight off the rubber tree. Or at least that’s how it used to be. Many of the crepe rubber soles these days are synthesized. Crepe soles are known for their milky-yellow color, sticky, crinkly texture, and their mid-to-heavy weight.

The British Army popularized the sole during WWII, when soldiers stationed in Burma, who had obtained Crepe-soled boots from local merchants. British shoemaker Clarks adapted the style to their now-iconic Desert boot, fitted with a heeled crepe sole.

Crepe rubber is an affordable, comfortable, and sustainable sole material that softens with wear and provides excellent cushioning and traction. However, it gets dirty easily, and can be difficult or impossible to resole depending on the maker of the shoe/boot.

Leather

Leather is the original sole, having been used since man first started wearing shoes some five thousand years ago. Today, it’s found primarily on dress shoes as it has the lowest profile, and it’s also the least weather-resistant—a few miles in snow and slush can completely ruin even the best pairs of leather-soled shoes. Despite those shortcomings, they do make a very satisfying “click-clack” sound as you walk on hard surfaces.

Meermin 101198 – Dark Brown Calf, available for $215 from Meermin.

Raw Cord

The raw cord sole is kind of a one-off that was created out of necessity during WWII. Rubber was hard to find, but shoemakers still needed to crank out hundreds of thousands of combat boots. To make do, they started melting down old car tires, which had fibrous nylon cords in them to reinforce the tread. No one had the time to take them out, so the raw cord sole was born. It’s generally quite wear-resistant and weatherproof, but somewhat rare outside of the WWII repro community.