What Can You Put on the Bottom of Shoes to Make them less Slippery (10 DIY)

When you go to a store to buy your favorite shoe, you usually look out for the best shoes that you can get for the best price.

Also, you look out for features like build quality, water resistance, breathability, etc. Hardly do people look out for the slip-resistance ability of the shoe.

How would you feel when you dress up for an event with shoes you bought that are really expensive, only for you to come across a slippery ground be in the middle of your event and then you slip and fall.

This could result in injury, not just injury, it is also very embarrassing. You would not want that to happen, I am pretty sure.

If you have shoes that are slippery, you should read through this article to figure out what you can put at the bottom of your shoe to make it less slippery.

10 things you can put on the bottom of your shoes to make them slippery

Table of Contents

These methods I am about to share are DIY methods that you can use to make the bottom of your shoe less slippery, you just need to follow the steps as explained and it will work for you:

They are:

Apply rubber glue and salt
Make use of non-slip spray
Get some shoe grip pad
You can score the soles with razor blades
Sandpaper the sole
Get some Ice grips
Roughen the sole
Take it to a cobbler
Make use of adhesive bandages
Make use of Hair Spray

Apply rubber glue and salt

This is one of the easiest ways that you can make the sole of your shoe less slippery. You should not be surprised when you see rubber glue and salt, it actually works well.

Since what you want to achieve is a rough texture on the outsole of your shoe, this combination of salt and rubber glue will do just that for you.

How do you do apply glue to salt on your shoe?

The first thing is to get a small bowl and mix the glue with some grains of salt.
It is usually best to add more grains of salt because more grains result in a better grip for your shoe.
How to apply this to the sole of your shoe is to make use of a brush to apply a thin layer of the mixture of rubber glue and salt.
Once you have applied it you should leave it for some time for it to dry naturally and thoroughly.
Make sure that you do not wear the shoes before the mixture of rubber gum and salt dries completely, you are going to ruin everything.
Once it has dried then you can wear the shoe out anywhere you want. By then you will see how less slippery the sole has become.

Make use of a Non-slip Spray

What Can You Put on the Bottom of Shoes to Make them less Slippery — CLICK IMAGE TO BUY RIGHT AWAY

A non-slip spray is a good alternative for a grip pad. How it functions to prevent your shoe from being slippery is very similar to that of the grip pad.

The very first thing you need to do is to ensure that you purchase your non-slip spray here.

Once you have purchased it the rest is so easy to do. Here is how you should do it: First spray a reasonable quantity of the Non-slip Spray on the bottom of your shoes.

Once you have done that then the next thing is to leave the shoe in an upside-down position to enable it to dry so well before you start to put it on.

Once it has dried then you are free to wear it wherever you want. Take note that you should not get a spray color that is entirely different from that of the sole of your shoe, if not it will make the sole of your shoe look so different and awkward.

Also, protect your working area by making use of some cloth to cover the area to avoid staining it around. You can make use of a towel that is no longer in use or a newspaper.

Get some shoe grip pad

This is another way that you can make your sole less slippery. What exactly is this grip pad? A grip pad (like this one on Amazon) is a textured adhesive that is usually stuck to the sole of your shoe in order to give it more traction.

Its job is simply to keep you standing firm and to keep you on your feet on slippery ground.

Most times when you buy this grip pad, it comes in the shape of your sole, sometimes you will have to adjust it to the shape of your sole so that it can fit properly.

However, the best type of pads are those that fit your shoes properly. You do not need to do any adjustments or trimming, you just need to attach the pad to the sole of the shoe.

How do you attach it? It’s simple, you need to first of all peel off the protective covering on the pad and then position the part of the exact part of the sole you want to place it.

Then you go ahead to press the pad on the exact position of the sole and leave it for a few hours to dry before you start to wear it out.

You can score the soles with razor blades

This is one of the easiest ways that you can make your shoes less slippery. You do not need any expensive tool to do this, all you need is a razor blade, a knife or any other sharp object that you can lay your hands on.

Do not think this will destroy the sole of your shoe, it will not, all you need to do is follow the steps.

First, get the shoe and hold it in an upside-down position in preparation to score it.

Second, use a sharp object to gently cut short and diagonal lines on the sole of your shoe.

Lastly, cut other lines in the opposite direction. Make sure you do not cut too deep so that it does not puncture the sole and make a deep hole in it.

Sandpaper the sole

Making use of sandpaper is another effective way that you can make your shoes less slippery. In situations where you may not be able to get access to blades or you may not be able to make use of the other methods, this sandpaper method is one that you can try out.

How do you make use of this sandpaper? What you need to do first of all is to get yourself fairly coarse sandpaper that has about 50 grit. Ensure that you identify the part of your sole that gets in contact with the floor.

You should go ahead to sandpaper (like this one on Amazon) the targeted part of your sole until it starts to feel textured.

Once you have done this you should leave the shoe for a while to cool down, after that you are free to wear the shoe out then you can see that the shoe will not be as slippery as it used to be.

Get some ice grips

Ice grips are very helpful when you want to make your shoes less slippery. You must have experienced situations where the weather gets really snowy and you want to prevent the tires of your cars from slipping while you are on transit, you put chains on your tires to prevent the tires from slipping.

It is also applicable to your shoes, but this time around you are not making use of chains, what you make use of is ice grips. Ice grips are made of heavy-duty rubber that gives your shoe a metal grip on slippery ice.

Without this, your shoes will become so slippery, causing you to slip off or even injure yourself when you come across the slippery ground.

All you need to do is simply get yourself a pair of ice grip for your shoes then you can go ahead to fix it in your shoes, once you have this done you can start to enjoy your shoe on slippery ice and you will not slip at all.

Roughen the sole

Your shoes are obviously slippery because the outsole is so smooth. You can change that by roughening the sole. This is another way that you can make your shoe less slippery.

This method does not require any different procedure, it is not a difficult one at all. All you need to do is to wear your shoes and make sure that you walk past rough terrain.

The aim is to roughen the outsole of this shoe to make it less slippery, you can go ahead to walk around on rough terrains like gravel or rough concrete rocks. This will do the job smoothly for you.

After you have walked across the rough terrain for a couple of hours you will start to see the difference in the texture of the outsole.

If you feel you do not want to walk about on rough terrain, you can go ahead to rub the outsole of this shoe on a rough surface. You are not to damage the shoe remember, you are to gently create books and abrasions on the smooth surface of the shoe.

Take it to a cobbler

You may feel like you do not want to go through the process of making your shoe less slippery all by yourself, or you may not have that luxury of time.

Another easy option for you is that you can simply take it to a shoe cobbler. The cobbler will you the job for you, all the need to do is tell the cobbler what you want him to do and he will get the job done for you.

The cobbler could even replace the sole with a slip-resistant sole for you. The thing about this method is that it saves you time if you are the busy type.

Out of all the methods listed here, this is the one that requires you to hand it over to a professional to handle it for you. The rest are majorly DIY methods.

Make use of adhesive bandages

This is another DIY method that you can use in making the sole of your shoes less slippery. Though this method is not a permanent method.

How this works is that you can go ahead to get adhesive bandages and place them down on the sole of your shoes.

The rough surface that it on the band-aid will help to grip the floor, this will help your feet stay put on it with no fear of falling or slipping off at all.

Make use of Hair Spray

Making use of hair spray is another DIY method that you can use in making your shoe less slippery. When you are not able to lay your hands on a non-slip Spray for shoes, you can go ahead to make use of a hair spray.

This hair spray is more of a temporal quick fix. How you need to do it is to, first of all, get your hair spray ready, then you go ahead to spray a reasonable quantity of the hair spray on the sole of your shoe, spray it continuously for about 10 – 15 seconds.

After doing this you should wait for the soles to get dried. The stickiness of the hair spray helps your soles to stick to the floor better, giving you a slip-resistant feature.

This is a quick fix, remember, you will need to redo this each time you wear your shoe out.

Conclusion

These DIY methods and quick fixes that I have explained here will help you make your shoes slip-resistant. If you feel that you may not be able to do these yourself, you can simply give the shoe to a cobbler to do it for you.

Or you can take your time to do it for you to save you the cost. Some methods are permanent, while some are temporary, some are time-saving and some could take some time, it is left for you to choose which of the methods you want to go for.