My question is what type of shoes do people wear to work in and on roofs?
My original employeer made us purchase gor-tex hiking boots. Many years later I am still doing this. Last winter I hired a layed off roofer and he wore skateboarding shoes on composite roofs. He got much better traction than I did. We do harness up when on roofs.
Yesterday I was on a tile roof and wore rubber boots. Worked like a charm.
What do you where to work on an everyday basis?
I used to do roofing before as well. The reason why he wore skateboarding shoes is because Vans or Sketchers…they are all flat soled shoes. For some reason it displaces your weight more evenly on the tiles as you are walking on them. That is what I have my guys wear when they are working. Boots are great, but if you can find them with flat soles it would be much better. When you are walking on the tiles, I always make sure I walk on the bottom part of TWO tiles with the ball of my foot on one, and the heel of the same foot on the other, and my other foot on 2 different tiles. It makes for a funny style walk, but I hardly ever break tiles.
i wear a training shoe called the MERCURY CAPONE . these are cheap as chips but have such a grippy sole that i swear by them.the sole is like marshmallow rubber . i can never find them online and the shop i buy them at (in IPSWICH) was running low on stock so they kindly searched all their other branches up and down the country for me , and im picking up 7 pairs this weekend which should last me a while .
Thats just selfish Jonny! I use trainers that tend to have flat bottoms, anything with curves, grooves or the working boots I wear when on the ground, will have less contact with the roof…also walk really flat-footed!
Depends on the weather and the jobs for the day. Sunny and nothin but windows, then on go the Vans. Rainy and crapy, on go the boots. The flat skate shoes work great on just about anything. 
I used to wear korkers but I bought the wrong size and frankly even if I had the right size ones don’t like them. Tieing them on a boot still makes me feel uneasy as my boot is not as tight as I would like it and slips against the sole. I have worn the vans and they were good. The best thing I have ever worn on a roof were climbing shoes. They make you feel like you are walking on the ground. Your foot can be resting on it’s side and it feels stuck to the roof. But they are impractical. The vans are the way to go.
Steep roofs – Convertible Korkers with appropriate soles strapped to my sneakers.
Steepless roofs – sneakers.
I purchased some AWP roofer’s shoes (sticky-ish sole) at Lowe’s a year or so ago, but haven’t cracked open the box yet.
What does a Gore-Tex (waterproof) boot have to do with roof safety?
Salomon brand shoes/boots have the stickiest rubber I have found even on metal roofs, trail runners in the summer and expedition boots in the winter, totally different shoes but still same grip. Some of my guys wear skate shoes (mostly because they skate) but they seem to do well.
Hiking boots generally have a hard rubber to hold up to rocks, so not very grippy on smooth surfaces and really bad if the rubber is cold.
Gore-Tex is always nice, but its only the material surrounding your foot, its available in almost any material, but not rubber, so it has nothing to do with the sole of the shoe. Vibram is most often the sole maker on boots and most of their stuff is hard rubber, so not ideal on slick surfaces.
We only were sketchers.
Gore-Tex had nothing to do with the safety aspect. My employeer demanded we wear them due to weather in WA ST and (I assume) comfort for the feet while on ladders
I am rethinking the majority of what I learned in my early days.
For the tile roofs, when they are even the slightest bit damp from morning dew, if there is any moss or algea on the roof…I have fallen 3 times when I was roofing and once when pressure washing a roof. All 3 times I had good shoes on, I have never tried those boots, but if they grip even thru the moss or algae, I would definitly consider getting them.
