Wearing Comfort of Footwear in Hot Environments

Abstract : The climatic wearing comfort of military footwear greatly influences the performance of the soldier. Particularly in hot and/or humid environments insufficient wearing comfort of footwear can cause severe problems. Considering that the formation of blisters can be considerably reduced if the feet are kept as dry as possible, means should be provided to reduce the humidity close to the surface of the foot. Even though a great diversity of so called 'functional' socks and 'breathable' shoes are available on the market today, there is still a lack of reliable and objective methods to simulate sweating inside the footwear at different levels of metabolic rate and to measure the resultant temperatures and relative humidities. It is, therefore, difficult to judge or compare different footwear systems (consisting of shoes, socks and inlay soles) with respect to their influence on the climatic wearing comfort.