What's The Difference in Safety Boot Soles In Australia?

Sep 03, 2021

Written by Ascent Representative Chris L. 

I am not going to get all technical on you in this blog post. I just want to give you some tips on work boots which some people don't know.

Safety footwear in Australia has to meet the Australian safety standards in order to be sold here. These standards also ensure that the footwear has all the required protection for workers in different fields of work.

I want to highlight the difference between outsole materials or soles as they are also called, for safety boots in Australia.

Primarily, there are three different types of material used in the soles of work boots in Australia. They include rubber, TPU-thermoplastic urethane and polyurethane. 

You may be thinking, well I don't care what material they're made from as long as they do the job.

Yes, that's a good point to make, but there are benefits for the wearer if they look a little deeper at the type of material the soles are made from when choosing work boots. 

All these materials assist with grip.

Rubber particularly has better heat resistance than the PU or TPU soles which is very important.

If you work in construction or manufacturing where there's a lot of heat, for example, if you're working on roads where the radiating heat can be very strong, you should definitely consider using a rubber-soled boot, as it will give you extra heat protection compared to PU or TPU soled boots. 

Industries where rubber-soled boots are a must: 

Construction, Manufacturing, Road Construction, Asphalt Road Laying, Smelter Works, Mining, Aviation, Petro Chemicals.

You're probably thinking... how much more protection does rubber give me? In most cases, TPU/PU Soles only offer 140 Degrees of heat protection. Ascent work boots have 300 Degree's heat protection!

So it may be time to consider rubber-soled work boots suited to your work environment.

Make sure you get the right work boots to suit your job and to protect your feet.