Rubber soled wading boots are slippery!

Remember those rubber waders or hippers with those hard rubber soles? Wading with these were hazardous for your health. Fast forward 35 years and we now got wading boots with felt and rubber soles with fancy names like Vibram (Simms) and Rock Grip (Patagonia).

I have been using felt soled wading boots since 1992 and I really love them for their very secure grip. Only on the most slippery algae covered rocks can they slip a bit. For my recent trip to USA & Canada I left my felt sole wading boots at home. Because of restrictions of felt sole in certain areas in Montana and Yellowstone National Park, I had my first introduction to rubber soled wading boots.

On wading (safety) these boots has been a huge disappointment. I rarely feel insecure when wading, but after the first steps I was very cautious with these rubber soles. I started the trip with the Patagonia Ultralight wading shoes and tried the Simms Freestone later on to see if one rubber type is more secure than the other. The verdict? They both sucked... How is it possible that even after 10 years selling these rubber soled wading boots, the manufacturers still haven't nailed this issue?

"...proven Vibram® Idrogrip rubber outsoles for powerful grip". Really Simms? 😂

With rubber soles adding cleats is a must to get a secure grip. Ask if your fly shop has experience with adding the cleats. Adding cleats is serious stuff as my first cleats installed at a fly shop came off real easy. I tried with five cleats on each boot and that didn't do much. My experience is that you need at least 10, preferably more, cleats per boot.

Update 20 Sep 2019:
Here's a review of a the new Simms Flyweight wading boots. The boots are nice indeed, but in this review they talk about the superior grip/traction of felt soles over rubber soles.