The Science of Grip
In 1920, John F. Sipe worked on a slaughterhouse floor in New York City’s meatpacking district. He spent his days shoveling guts into machinery wearing work boots with thick rubber soles. These boots slipped a lot on the slick factory floor, and after falling one too many times, John started to experiment with modifying them.
He found that carving perpendicular notches into the tread of his work boots improved his traction drastically — plummeting his rate of workplace falls.
And thus, the “sipe” was born.
At least, as legend would have it.