Abstract
Laboratory testing was conducted to assess the slip resistance of men's dress socks on typical household flooring surfaces under wet and dry conditions. This study was conducted as a follow-up to a previous work on the slip resistance of athletic socks. Both of these studies attempt to fill the void of published data regarding the coefficient of friction between an indoor walking surface and the foot of a pedestrian wearing socks (rather than shoes). Eight different dress socks as well as a Neolite “shoe” were tested on wood and textured vinyl floors under both wet and dry conditions.
The results in this study indicated that in terms of slip resistance, it makes little practical difference to a walker wearing loose-weave, non-nylon dress socks whether the flooring is wet or dry. Socks with tighter weaves, such as nylon socks, are significantly less slip-resistant on wet floors than under dry conditions.
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