What Is A Half Lug Sole On Leather Boots?

You may have seen some leather boots with what's called a "half-lug sole," often enough - at least with quality examples - a Vibram product, and at that the Mini Vibram sole. It's a very common sole style on work boots and on some casual shoes as well.

What is it and what does it do? 

Half-Lug Sole Vs Full Lug

A half-lug sole is a streamlined, toned-down adaptation of the full lug sole, which is not necessary for all environments. 

What is a lug sole? 

A lug sole is a term used to describe a shoe or boot sole that is either a specific type of Vibram sole or is patterned from it.

The Vibram company was started by Vitale Bramini, an Italian whose passion was mountaineering. Bramini found the boots of the era didn't have enough traction for cold weather conditions and determined the soles were the usual culprit, especially in the case of one trip where six of Bramini's climbing party died because they couldn't descend the mountain.

What he designed was a boot sole made of hard rubber, with the siping channels and star-shaped lugs that we're so used to seeing. That boot sole, the Vibram Carrarmato, became instantly popular for outdoor use (because it worked!) and then began being used in practical footwear as well as that for outdoor use.

Today, the same sole design by Vibram is called the Montagna (Italian for "mountain") and is copied by shoe companies...all over the world. Though not all ARE Vibrams, it's a copy of his design.

A half-lug sole is much what it sounds like; a scaled-down version of that. The Mini Vibram, the classic example, has a smooth ring around the outer edge of the sole, taking up about a quarter of the outer edge. The interior has the siping and lug pattern of the original, but the lugs are also shorter in height, making the half-lug lower-profile than the standard design. 

What Is A Half-Lug Sole For

The reason you'd get a boot with a half-luge sole is that a full lug isn't necessary.

A full lug pattern is very necessary on the rough ground such as the outdoors. This sole style is, therefore, very popular for hunting boots as well as work boots for people who labor in certain outdoor trades such as foresters, linesman and wildland firefighters.

In that situation, you need as much traction as you can get because your life kind of depends on it.

However, in many other trades, a full lug sole is a bit of a drag. The aggressive tread can actually dig into the floor, making walking awkward and can actually slow down your natural gait. If you're working indoors, or outdoors in less than arduous conditions - such as in farming, or residential construction - a full lug sole just isn't strictly necessary.

The half-lug still has good traction. It's plenty of treads for winter conditions and for outdoor use in all but the roughest terrain, so it's not that they're for city slickers alone. It's more than a half-lug makes getting around a little easier on a person if a full lug isn't necessarily called for by whatever it is that they're doing.