Thursday, September 1, 2011

What does this sticker on my shoe mean??




So, since I was back-to-school cloths shopping for the little ones ALL DAY LONG this is a late night post...but  hopefully it will get to those who will find it informative.

I'm not sure if most schools require children to have so many pairs of shoes, but my kids' school require kids to have a pair of gym shoes, inside shoes and outside/recess shoes (or boots in the winter). The gym shoes MUST have non-marking soles. 

So, on my quest to find shoes with non-marking soles, I found that A.) Not all shoes say "non-marking sole"- even if they have a non-marking sole,  and B.) these stickers that were on nearly all the shoes I looked at. 

Here is the sticker I am speaking of....



Let me tell you now...this sticker has nothing to do with whether or not the sole is non-marking. This sticker tells you what the shoe is made of. It took me a good 45 minutes of internet searching to find this out. Searching "shoe sticker" does not get you anywhere, nor does "sticker on shoe", or " sole diamond", or any of the other odd combinations I tried. I finally put in the entire question, "What does the sticker on the bottom of my shoe mean" to find the answer.  Well... according to What A Pair (Sorry, this link doesn't work anymore), this is what those symbols mean....

The top picture on the left with the arrow pointing to the upper of the shoe is telling you what the upper is made of, in this shoe's case coated leather (the first symbol), and "other materials" (the white diamond). 

The second picture on the left hand side of the sticker is showing what the lining and sock is made of. In this shoe, the lining and sock  is made of textile, or fabrics.

The third picture on the left with the arrow pointing to the sole is for the outer sole. The white diamond means the same as in the top right hand diamond... "other materials". 


Sooo.... why the info? Well, people like to know what they are getting, and some people really need to know this info. Vegans can use this information to help them purchase shoes that do not harm animals. The textile picture and white diamond both represent materials that are Vegan Friendly (contain no animal parts, such as leather). 



Leather: This is the hide or skin from an animal that has been put through a process called tanning. There are many types of leather and that is an educational page all in itself.

Coated Leather: This is one of the processes of treating leather; basically the leather is coated with one of a variety of products for the desired look.

Coated Leather: This is one of the processes of treating leather; basically the leather is coated with one of a variety of products for the desired look.

Textile: This means fabric, the list is endless. This is one of the symbols the vegans, vegetarians and eco-friendly consumers look for because it means all natural or man made materials are used for the construction.

Other Materials: This is still man-made materials just a little different because these materials usually refer to the sole of the shoe. The most common of these materials are Thermoplastic Rubber, PVC, Rubber Compounds, Crepe, and Composition. All of these materials are friendly for the Vegan, Vegetarian and Eco-Friendly consumer.


In other news... the shoe that was in question (in the above picture)-Sketchers Grenadier- has a non-marking sole according to the Sketchers' website.

6 fantastic comments:

joeh said...

They could just put a slip of paper in the shoe to tell you all of that stuff!!

Why is life so complicated?

Cranky Old Man

Six in the Nest said...

Maybe the paper would cost too much? Who knows...but I really don't see why they made a sticker to put on the shoe when no one knows what the sticker means.

Unknown said...

How strange! Thank goodness the Internet knows everything.

Anonymous said...

i am in the shoe business, and found myself internet searching the meaning of those little stickers, thanks for the answer!

the stickers drive me mad, because nobody knows what they mean, and they tend to fall off all of our shoes anyway

Cathy Sugden said...

Such a shame that your icons dont show the symbols properly and that the link thro to what a pai didn't work either:( Not sure why and you've taken all this time to give such good information:)

Adam said...

Thanks for your research! Super helpful!

 
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