Safety footwear: A survey of end-users

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an extensive survey concerning the experience of safety footwear end-users. Safety footwear has been in widespread use across many industries worldwide since the 1970s, and has become an essential part of industrial Personal Protective Equipment. The number of women entering predominantly male industrial environments, and requiring safety footwear is rising, and this is accompanied by anecdotal reports of ill-fitting and uncomfortable footwear.

This research proactively compares the opinions of women and men regarding their experience of safety footwear. A systematically designed survey aims to substantiate previously anecdotal knowledge around safety footwear, including key drivers for end-user purchases, wear habits and comfort issues (establishing any differences between women and men). Chi-squared testing was used to assess statistical significance and ensure robustness of findings. The responses and resulting analysis confirmed that comfort and fit were key drivers for all end users; women and men have different wear habits (women wear their safety footwear less frequently and for shorter periods of time than men – likely due to the reported comfort issues); a significant proportion of women (60%) found their safety footwear less comfortable than their regular footwear, however, 45% of men also reported the same, which has not been reported anecdotally. In general, the users of safety footwear accepted a level of discomfort in at least one area of the foot before deeming footwear ‘uncomfortable’.

The significant analysis performed on the captured data has, to the authors knowledge, never before been undertaken for this breadth of industry, age and gender with 632 responses received. This makes it the largest study of this field to date.

Introduction

Since its inception after the First World War and move into widespread use in the late 1970s, safety footwear has become an essential part of industrial Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) (Da Silva, 2017).

Allied Market Research reports that the market will be worth approximately USD 6 billion by 2022 (Upadhayay, 2017) and that the industry is experiencing a 7.5% compound annual growth rate.

The core aim of safety footwear is to prevent damage to the foot (SGS, 2020). However, it is acknowledged within the industry that the majority of safety footwear for women is manufactured on men’s lasts. The major differentiation point being color and aesthetics rather than true fit. It is anecdotally reported that safety footwear is uncomfortable, especially around the toecap region, which is uncompromising for the wearer due to being constructed of a rigid steel, thermoplastic or composite shell. Furthermore, it is believed that this issue is more pronounced for women.

There have, to the authors’ knowledge, been no wide-ranging studies to date that explore the end-user experience of safety footwear in detail. Though the authors recognize related studies include those by Dobson et al. who conducted a detailed survey of Australian coal miners (Dobson et al., 2018a). Dobson et al. found miners’ boots were not meeting the requirements of their wearers (n = 358, n_men = 355, n_women = 3) and additionally, they believed that their footwear was contributing to their frequently reported foot, lower limb and back pain. In terms of fit, 82.4% of Dobson et al.‘s respondents stated that they had a ‘reasonable’ to ‘good’ fit and when considering comfort, 18.1% indicated that their footwear was ‘uncomfortable’, 38.5% as ‘indifferent’ and 37.7% as ‘comfortable’. Further work by Dobson et al. compared the shape of miners’ feet with the shape of their work boots and concluded that male underground mine workers (n = 208) wore boots that were “substantially longer than their feet” with the most likely explanation being that the correct length proved too narrow across the forefoot width (Dobson et al., 2018b).

A survey conducted in 2016 on behalf of Dr. Martens interviewed outdoor workers to understand their footwear related issues during the winter months (HSM, 2016) and in 2017, a survey for the Supertouch® brand concluded that “Comfort is King” (HSM, 2017a). However, no academic publications have followed from these industry-led studies and no detailed results or analysis are available.

The research reported in this paper details the results of a systematically designed, wide ranging end-user survey. This research aims to build on the aforementioned studies, comparing experiences of end-users of safety footwear across sexes. The survey serves to evidence a range of issues anecdotally associated with safety footwear, such as sex differences regarding fit, comfort and tolerability, and also collects further data to investigate whether unknown issues exist between industries and age groups.