An Alpine Tragedy Reinvented Shoe Grip Safety

Behind the invention of nearly every major safety workwear innovation is a tragic tale of why it became so crucial and widely used.

There is a common aphorism in occupational health that regulations are written in blood. Whilst this is not always the case, with velcro being inspired by burdock seeds for instance, there are far too many pieces of safety equipment invented in the aftermath of tragedy.

Hard hats, ripstop trousers and steel toecap boots all emerged as the results of tragedy, but one of the most heartbreaking cases is also one of the most important and commonly used footwear innovations of the last eight decades.

Heartbreak And Sole

Born in Turin, Italy in 1900, Vitale Bramani was an experienced mountain climber and a member of the country’s Alpine Club. This made the events of 15th September 1935 all the more horrifying to witness.

On a climbing attempt in the Italian Alps in the region of Val Bregaglia, there was a serious snowstorm and heavy fog. These appalling conditions would ultimately claim the lives of six of Mr Bremani’s friends and fellow climbers.

In the tragic aftermath, the primary blame was on the footwear that the climbers used. At the time, the standard practice for shoes that needed to be grippy was to add hobnails which helped them to last longer (since only the nails would need replacing) and gave them extra grip.

They were very useful during the early part of an ascent, where a climber would expect to be hiking on soft snow or dirt. However, on harder surfaces such as ice, the hobnailed boots would start to slip.

To get around this, during the later parts of the ascent, climbers would change into thin climbing shoes with felt soles that allowed them greater traction on slippery surfaces.

The big problem, as one might have already suspected, is that thin shoes when traversing icy peaks over 3000m above sea level are not going to help protect these feet, and this combined with the fact that the body naturally perspires when moving vigorously to cause the shoes to freeze.

This made them even slipper than the hobnail tack was, causing slips, falls, frostbite and hypothermia, all of which contributed to the unnecessary deaths of six climbers.

Mr Bramani was an inventor, and heartbroken at the loss of his friends, starting to look into the types of footwear that could have potentially saved them.

His solution was to replace the thick leather soles of the thicker boots with a hard, vulcanised rubber sole, which would be winterproof and water-resistant.

He then developed a unique form of rubber tread for the shoes, known as the “Carrarmato” (tank tread) which featured a ring of rubber grips and a set of crosses on the sole. It is perhaps fitting that on the flat of the foot, there are six crosses, one for each of the lives lost on the mountain.

It ended up being a revelation, and many heavy-duty work shoes have a very similar grip to this day. Its greatest achievement was being the boots that helped an Italian expedition group ascend to the summit of the fearsome K2 in 1954.