Foot Wear

As hot as it gets here in Oki and NC - I wear 5 finger toe shoes when I detail. Then again I'm real careful and haven't had any foot issues (knock on wood!!) Wearing steeltoes in 110+ degree summer weather for any length of time is miserable. Been there done that in Iraq and AFG- never again.
 
I've pretty much settled into my running shoes now. They get wet sometimes, but they are mesh topped, so they dry quickly, and I can throw them in the washing machine when they get dirty. They seem to help with fatigue running around on my shop's concrete floor. No foot protection, but I'm not really doing anything on a regular basis where I need that anyway.
 
you can get industrial steel toe water proof boots and shoes. They also make rubber slip on's that you can slip on over your sneakers with a steel toe insert. They have a descent tread on them. You can put them on for moving equipment around and doing a wash and kick them off during the session. I just find steel toes to be too heavy to be on your feet all day. I wear waterproof work boots during the wash then change to sneakers while i'm doing all the "dry" parts of detailing. I don'y like wearing chunky boots inside a clients car.
 
inDetail said:
you can get industrial steel toe water proof boots and shoes. They also make rubber slip on's that you can slip on over your sneakers with a steel toe insert. They have a descent tread on them. You can put them on for moving equipment around and doing a wash and kick them off during the session. I just find steel toes to be too heavy to be on your feet all day. I wear waterproof work boots during the wash then change to sneakers while i'm doing all the "dry" parts of detailing. I don'y like wearing chunky boots inside a clients car.
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I like the slip on idea, better than the occasional wet socks!
 
I wear steel toes at work outside all day long. Get a comfy/quality pair and you will be fine. They also make composite toes which are lighter, and don't make your toes freeze when its cold out.
 
I used to wear my nike frees but they get way too wet. Now I use Nike shox and I have no problem with my feet getting wet. They let my foot sit up a bit higher and the water can't come in my shoes.
 
When I worked at the body shop I wore Die Hard steel toe black low top mechanic boots with extra sole. (Just in case)

But now since I am only doing Detailing, I can recommend not wearing Converse Chuck Taylor's low tops (you might look cool, but your feet will be soaking wet) lol
 
davisautodetail said:
Okay, so this is going to sound goofy.

Yesterday while loading up my mobile trailer, I managed to get the thing on my toe, almost cutting the stupid thing off. Needless to say, stitches.

This isn't the first time I've hurt my toes, and it had me rethinking my foot wear approach. I'm almost always wearing running shoes, they are light, easy to get on an off, dry quickly if they get wet, and since I exercise a lot, I always have a good supply of them after they get too many miles on them but look good still.

I considered switching to some sort of boot, but I'm concerned about 2 things (1) that wearing boots with shorts will make me look like a mailman, and 2) they are too heavy and will get tiresome after doing a full day of detailing.

Most of the stuff I do isn't dangerous to the feet, but loading/unloading the mobile trailer could be.

Has anyone found a good solution that might provide a little more protection than running shoes, but not weigh 100lbs?

Thanks!

KD
(feeling like a bit of a chick. ;->)
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Could you simply use the heavy boot with the toe protection when you load/unload and switch to your running shoes while
you're doing the detailing?

Just saying.
 
Mach1USMC said:
As hot as it gets here in Oki and NC - I wear 5 finger toe shoes when I detail. Then again I'm real careful and haven't had any foot issues (knock on wood!!) Wearing steeltoes in 110+ degree summer weather for any length of time is miserable. Been there done that in Iraq and AFG- never again.
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I'd run off a professional wearing such on my property...but I'm crotchety like that.
 
Vegas Transplant said:
I'd run off a professional wearing such on my property...but I'm crotchety like that.
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Different strokes for different folks. If you were hiring me as some sort of executive I can totally understand that stance- but you're hiring me (or someone else) to detail your car, I respectfully suggest your stance is unreasonable. Then again I also reserve the right to NOT detail your vehicle. Attitude almost always determines altitude- food for thought my friend:props:
 
I forgot about composite toe. I agree if your gonna get safety shoes put out the money. It's worth it. I have to wear them at work and the first pair I bought I went on the cheap and I paid for it. I started buying Doc industrial shoes. They are comfy but get trashed quickly. If your only wearing them for a little while they will last years. Besides write them off on your taxes as a business expense.
 
For me, it becomes a fatigue issue, but the situation changes. Did a boat yesterday, and ended up in flip flops because I kept trashing the back of the boat climbing in and out.

Running shoes seem to work well for me now. I'm not doing a lot that can cause injury, most of the time, so it's hard to justify more protective shoes and sacrifice comfort. Detailing is a bit of a marathon anyway, so I figure running shoes work well.

For the record, I'm a bit crotchety too, but I've never had anyone look at my feet to see what I was wearing before I detailed their rig. :xyxthumbs:Never had anyone check my underwear either for proper support!
 
Mach1USMC said:
Different strokes for different folks. :grouphug:

If you were hiring me as some sort of executive I can totally understand that stance- but you're hiring me (or someone else) to detail your car, I respectfully suggest your stance is unreasonable.

Probably so. But I'd run off a person sagging his pants down to his knees with half his bloomers showing also.

Then again I also reserve the right to NOT detail your vehicle. Attitude almost always determines altitude- food for thought my friend:props:
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I'm about as liberal as they come. But I draw a line at how professionals appear at MY house...regardless of their attitude or abilities. Mike Phillips would get run off IF he wore those shoes at my house.

davisautodetail said:
For me, it becomes a fatigue issue, but the situation changes. Did a boat yesterday, and ended up in flip flops because I kept trashing the back of the boat climbing in and out.

Running shoes seem to work well for me now. I'm not doing a lot that can cause injury, most of the time, so it's hard to justify more protective shoes and sacrifice comfort. Detailing is a bit of a marathon anyway, so I figure running shoes work well.

For the record, I'm a bit crotchety too, but I've never had anyone look at my feet to see what I was wearing before I detailed their rig. :xyxthumbs:Never had anyone check my underwear either for proper support!
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:laughing::laughing::laughing: ROFL...

I wear tennis shoes from time to time. Quite often, actually. But more often than not, I just boot up. I just finished 7 hrs on a mobile with those boots. I bought those boots the last time I stubbed my toe on a raised concrete joint. The older you get, the longer it takes to heal. I'm only 51, but I'm not going through that again...hopefully.
 
Here's irony for ya. Here we are talking about the safety of feet, and yesterday I accidentally caught the safety kill switch tether with my PC 7424 (with a scrubber head).

I was working on a boat, and was just working along the vinyl, and WHIPPPPPPPPPP! Plastic tether plus metal crimps plus hard plastic ends = pain!

Bruised the hell out of my hands, and cut me up. It managed to heal up well overnight, enough I could detail today, but still really swollen.

It happened so fast, I couldn't react. My buddy said maybe I should wear one of those bomb disposal suits to keep me safer! :dblthumb2:
 
Accidents happen. Sorry to hear of your misfortune. What's a safety kill switch tether?
 
10-04. Thanks. I thought it was something attached to the machine. Kinda tired now.
Thanks to the photo, I think that I can picture what happened.
 
Vegas Transplant said:
I'm about as liberal as they come. But I draw a line at how professionals appear at MY house...regardless of their attitude or abilities. Mike Phillips would get run off IF he wore those shoes at my house.



:laughing::laughing::laughing: ROFL...

I wear tennis shoes from time to time. Quite often, actually. But more often than not, I just boot up. I just finished 7 hrs on a mobile with those boots. I bought those boots the last time I stubbed my toe on a raised concrete joint. The older you get, the longer it takes to heal. I'm only 51, but I'm not going through that again...hopefully.
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As I said. Different strokes for different folks...... If you show up looking like a homeless person I'm with you. I will likely not entertain doing business with you. To ME context is very important. If I'm looking at you as an accountant I will have a different expectation of how you dress than someone coming to cut my grass, detail my car or do other types of outdoor labor. If your expectation that all perspective consultants show up in a 3 piece suit and dressed to the nines I will suggest that you will likely miss out on some quality folks. But that's a personal decision. I'll tell you straight up, I wouldn't do any work for you- you're too uptight- and you would miss out because I do high quality work. But if that is what works for you then rock on.
 
:laughing::laughing::laughing:

The guy that cuts my grass wears a uniform and is a close friend. We detail together sometimes. When I lived in Vegas, I routinely hired homeless guys from our church's outreach to perform menial tasks in the yard. They could be unshaven, dirty clothes, what have you. But these were not pro's.

To put it simply brother detailer, I'm just a saddle tramp from another era.
 
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