Work Boots & Safety Shoes for Summer

The Best Lightweight and Breathable Safety Shoes

Stay safe and comfortable at work, even during the hottest months, with the best summer safety shoes: comfortable, lightweight, and breathable.

As we navigate through fluctuating weather patterns, we're heading into a summer that meteorologists predict will be scorching and rainy. While forecasts can always be proven wrong, it’s crucial to prepare for the new season with the most suitable, efficient, and comfortable summer workwear, even if the summer of 2019 doesn't turn out to be one of the hottest on record.

Safety Shoes and the Summer Heat

During the hottest months, working conditions can become particularly strenuous, especially in sectors where utmost attention to safety is required. Some jobs necessitate long hours outdoors, exposed to the sun and summer storms, such as agriculture, gardening, construction, and building. Factories, workshops, or artisanal labs, if not air-conditioned, can also become particularly inhospitable during the hottest hours.

Safety shoes are generally heavier and more rigid than regular sports shoes. In the summer months, the very features that make them safe and protective can further tire those who wear them for extended periods, increasing foot perspiration and the discomfort that comes with it.

Ignoring workplace safety is not an option, even when high temperatures make the situation uncomfortable. This is why choosing the right summer work shoes is essential to ensure that workers not only have protection from injuries but also the comfort needed to perform their tasks efficiently while maintaining overall well-being.

Summer Work Shoes: Lightweight

The best summer work shoes should be lightweight, comfortable, and breathable. If shoe weight is a decisive factor, an excellent choice would be shoes made from lightweight materials such as microfiber, polyester mesh fabric, and suede split leather, or even just polyester – the lightest option, yet still robust.

The polyester fabric over-injected with TPU in Diadora Utility's lightweight safety shoes, model Textile, is incredibly light and comfortable but extremely durable. The shoe's excellent durability is ensured by D-Cage technology, a thermoplastic polyurethane over-injection that covers the upper, making the shoe stable and abrasion-resistant, thus extending its lifespan (a non-negligible factor when investing in quality safety footwear).

For work environments that do not require safety shoes with anti-perforation plates, S1 and S2 safety-rated shoes (detailed in this article) are usually a good choice to alleviate the fatigue of summer work, especially models that reduce the weight of the midsole without compromising cushioning.

The D-Light technology from Diadora's research and development labs produces a polyurethane compound that is 20% lighter than traditional polyurethane but equally effective in cushioning. Diadora's lightweight safety shoes that use this technology, with or without anti-perforation plates, are light, comfortable, and fatigue-reducing.

Summer Work Shoes: Breathable

Wearing breathable safety shoes reduces the discomfort of excessive sweating in the summer months and can help prevent issues that sometimes arise (irritations, fungal infections, skin lesions: we dedicated this article to foot health with work shoes).

When the weather is very hot and rainy, or extremely variable as often happens at the beginning and end of summer, those working outdoors or in tasks involving water contact need to keep their feet cool and dry from sweat, but also protected from external moisture - thus requiring water-repellent safety shoes.

Water-resistant work shoes tend to be less breathable, so when choosing S2 or S3 safety-rated shoes for the summer months, it is particularly important to opt for models that combine water repellency with excellent breathability.

A functional choice could be microfiber: Diadora Utility's U Micro fabric is water-repellent, extremely breathable, and 30% lighter than leather shoes.

If your job requires a high-security shoe that is more performant and efficient, don't despair: even the most robust, water-resistant, anti-perforation shoes with leather uppers can be breathable, comfortable, and flexible, perfect for summer use.

This is the case with Diadora Utility shoes that use the Net Breathing System by Geox, such as the latest Glove Tech models. The special waterproof and breathable membrane resulting from this technology is made of a microporous material that absorbs sweat in the form of water vapor and expels it through the perforated sole, while preventing water from entering. This facilitates the natural thermoregulation of the foot, keeping it dry and healthy even in the hottest climatic conditions and most intense work situations.

In addition to the Net Breathing System, Glove Tech shoes feature cutting-edge materials and technologies to ensure both protection performance and foot comfort: the upper is made of Perwanger® split leather, a leather with superior waterproof characteristics that still allows the foot to breathe freely; the anti-perforation insert is the K SOLE Breathable insole, patented exclusively for Diadora Utility and, as the name suggests, breathable, lightweight, and flexible.

It's no wonder that Diadora Utility's Glove Tech models are the safety shoes of choice for the Aprilia technical team, who work all summer in the demanding environment of the world's motorcycle racing circuits.