When did rubber soles become available? ...

[cmeisenzahl]

When did rubber soles become available? What did men do in inclement weather before rubber soles and/or galoshes? I imagine there was a time when leather soles were all that was available?

 

[slt]

In Europe the use of rubber to make waterproof shoes started sometime in the beginning of the nineteenth century.

After the vulcanization process was developed around 1840, rubber started to became more widely used for things like tires, hoses, shoe soles etc.

 

[Bostonian]

Of interest form Word Detective:

It turns out that the original "gumshoes" of the late 1800's were shoes or boots made of gum rubber, the soft-soled precursors of our modern sneakers... At the turn of the century "to gumshoe" meant to sneak around quietly as if wearing gumshoes, either in order to rob or, conversely, to catch thieves. "Gumshoe man" was originally slang for a thief, but by about 1908 "gumshoe" usually meant a police detective, as it has ever since.