Slip-resistant footwear: a buyer’s guide

Buying your own work shoes?

You may have been told to buy “slip-resistant” or “anti-slip” footwear, without much help choosing it. A label alone does not tell you how well a shoe will grip the floors you actually walk on.

This guide helps you find a sensible starting point, ask better questions and choose footwear that suits your work. It draws on Neospire’s footwear testing and Kevin Hallas’s background in HSE slip-prevention research.

By Kevin Hallas, former Technical Lead for Falls Prevention at HSE. Updated 13 November 2026.

Where to start looking

We recommend starting with WearerTech and Shoes for Crews. Both are current Neospire clients, and our work with their footwear gives us confidence in recommending them as places to start. This is a focused shortlist, rather than a comparison of every brand on the market.

WearerTech

Work footwear with a focus on slip resistance and comfort for people spending long shifts on their feet. Its range includes shoes, trainers, clogs and safety footwear.

Explore WearerTech footwear →

Shoes for Crews

A specialist slip-resistant footwear supplier with styles for hospitality, healthcare and other workplaces. Choose a model suited to your role, fit and any additional protection you need.

Explore Shoes for Crews footwear →

A brand recommendation is a starting point. Ask about the specific model and sole: it does not mean that every product has the same performance.

Your five-point buying checklist

  1. Ask for evidence. Look for information about the exact model or sole, the test method and the surfaces and contaminants used. “Anti-slip” on its own is not a performance result.

  2. Check the reviews. We have found that searching in product reviews often uncovers comments by other wearers of the footwear regarding slips. Most reviews are left quite quickly after purchase, but look closely and you will find complaints about slips in particular scenarios you may also encounter.

  3. Get the fit right. Check width, heel security, fastening and comfort with your normal work socks. Check the returns policy before buying.

  4. Check the other requirements. Your workplace may specify toe protection, puncture resistance, cleanability, a closed heel or other features. Good grip alone does not cover every hazard.

  5. Look after the soles. Keep the tread clear and follow the manufacturer’s cleaning guidance. Check for wear and damage, and replace footwear when its condition or performance deteriorates.

What do “anti-slip” and “slip-resistant” mean?

Retailers use “anti-slip”, “non-slip” and “slip-resistant” to describe footwear intended to offer grip. None of those words guarantees that you cannot slip. The useful question is: how has this particular footwear performed, and under what conditions?

The sole compound, tread, floor, contamination and condition of the shoe all matter. A photograph or an aggressive-looking tread is not enough to judge grip.

Understanding SR and SRC

SR is an additional slip-resistance marking used with the 2022 EN ISO safety and occupational footwear standards. It relates to a specified test on ceramic tile with glycerol. The basic slip test uses ceramic tile with a dilute soap solution and normally has no separate slip marking.

SRA, SRB and SRC belong to earlier versions of the standards. They describe particular test conditions; SRC means the footwear met both the SRA and SRB requirements. SR and SRC are not interchangeable scores or a ranking of every shoe’s real-world grip.

All of these ratings come from industry standard testing, and they are applied to footwear that we would not consider to be slip resistant. The test behind these markings does not replicate the way you walk, so whilst they do measure friction, they don’t measure it in a meaningful way. The result is many buyers of ‘SR’ footwear still suffer slipping accidents.

All of these markings require the footwear to exceed a threshold value set in the standard. Exceeding it by a large amount is assumed to indicate superior performance, so some suppliers talk abotu this - but beware, this is superior performance on a test that doesn’t replicate your walking. Research has shown this to be a poor predictor of real-world performance.

If you want to understand why this is the case, read our ‘Physics of Slipping’ paper, which you can download here:

Download Physics of Slipping (PDF) →

GRIP Ratings

The HSE GRIP Rating Scheme was a separate, voluntary one-to-five-star scheme. It was a great way to see the real differences in footwear performance. It relied on a test that was very closely related to walking, so the results were meaningful. However, it was very expensive for manufacturers to take part, and HSE found it hard to keep it going, so it is no longer maintained. An old rating needs to be read in context, including which sole was tested and whether the current product is unchanged.

Neospire intend to launch a successor scheme called NeoGRIP which will learn from the HSE scheme but use the new test method which they developed but never implemented. We have the kit and the expertise to implement it. The advantage is both lower cost of testing and the availabiity of test equipment to purchase, so that other labs and manufacturers themselves can have the right kit to assess their own products.

Read our guide to HSE GRIP ratings and NeoGRIP →

Should your employer provide the footwear?

Before paying for shoes yourself, ask what your employer’s risk assessment requires and whether suitable footwear is provided. In Great Britain, where the risk assessment identifies PPE as necessary, the employer must provide it free of charge to workers covered by the PPE duties. A general dress-code request and a requirement for protective footwear need to be distinguished.

Read HSE’s guidance on PPE provision. For team purchasing, see our employer footwear guidance or NHS footwear briefing.

What to ask a footwear supplier

“Have these shoes been GRIP rated by HSE or Neospire?”

If you have been given only a vague instruction to buy anti-slip shoes, share this guide with your manager or safety representative. Neospire helps manufacturers and employers compare footwear using independent testing; individual wearers can use the guidance here to make a more informed choice.

See our footwear grip demonstration · Contact Neospire

Further reading