![Dr. Tilak Dutta holding different winter boots.](/corporate/News/PublishingImages/Pages/canadian_winters_get_grip/Winter_footwear1.jpg)
Dr. Tilak Dutta compares the soles on different winter boots. (Photo: UHN)
Toronto Rehab researchers are developing new methods to mass-produce a shoe material that may help decrease slips and falls in winter conditions.
The material, which is made up of glass fibers embedded in a compliant rubber, could one day be used in the soles of slip-resistant winter boots. The researchers describe the manufacturing process in a paper in the journal
Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing.
The researchers are testing the material in
WinterLab —a self-contained lab at Toronto Rehab that recreates typical winter conditions and can tilt to a slope of up to 15 degrees.
![Toronto Rehab researchers suit up for demo](/corporate/News/PublishingImages/Pages/canadian_winters_get_grip/Winter_footwear2.jpg)
Toronto Rehab researchers suit-up for a demo of slip-resistant winter boots inside WinterLab . (Photo: UHN)
See the CTV coverage
here.
Read the Globe and Mail story
here.