Non Slip...More Like Slip'n'slide! By kazmat on Mar 16, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

Ladies, ever get a new pair of dress shoes and worry that the sole is way to slick to walk safely? While the old-fashioned remedy of scuffing the sole up on the asphalt or concrete can work to add traction, I recently found a product that claims to "prevent you from slipping on wet or slick surfaces and allow you to strut with confidence and poise". The product, "Sole stopperz" from Foot Petals. This is an adhesive product (a plastic sticker) that you stick on the sole of your shoe to make it non-slip. With the increasing number of super slick restaurant floors I've experienced lately, I decided to give the Sole Stopperz a try. I purchased several pairs and eagerly started sticking them on the bottoms of my favorite sexy sandals. I admit that after a brief testing on my wood-laminate flooring, the soles were still slipping. Since I had already spent the money, I decided that maybe the product needed to be tested in the real-world, not just my home. I recently wore a pair of these sticker bearing shoes and wasn't concerned about slipping because I had this great non-slip product on them. Well...that confidence easily eroded when I stepped into a restaurant that had a slick concrete floor. Let's say that it felt and looked like I was walking on ice as I slid around a bit trying to make my way to the table. I wasn't even drinking! Just when thought I was safe, I made it out of the restaurant without falling or sliding too badly, I slip and fall on the smooth wood planks outside! Fortuntately, I didn't end up with a fracture... only my ego and knees were bruised. Needless to say, this product does not work to provide a non-slip, non-skid surface on your shoes. Another claim that is used to promote this product is that it protects the sole of your shoe. Yeah, it will do that either because the sticker is really preventing wear on the sole or because the darn shoes will sit in my closet because I feel they are too slippery and unsafe to wear. Either way, the product didn't prevent me from slipping and I spent most of my time at dinner worried about walking out of the restaurant without sliding. That's a long way from confidence and poise. I'm not saying that all of the products from Foot Petals are awful, because they aren't at all. I'm just saying this product needs further development to perform as it is promoted.