Vibram soles are named after their inventor, entrepreneur Vitale Bramani, a talented climber from the Club Alpino Italiano who developed them in 1937, making them the world’s first rubber soles.
Vibram’s history begins in 1935 when Vitale Bramani led a tragic expedition to the Italian Alps.
Back then, climbers wore boots with heavy leather soles, switching to felt-bottomed climbing shoes as the terrain got steeper.
These old soles were not insulated leaving not only the climbers’ feet exposed to damp and cold, as well as causing the boots to be slippery on the descent due to the sole freezing.
Vitale Bramani was convinced that his crewmates would have survived the fateful expedition if they had shoes with light, durable, non-slip soles.
Bramani then decided to invent a waterproof sole with vulcanized rubber (a material patented in 1844 by Charles Goodyear of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company) that would help reduce the risk of freezing in severe winter conditions and that had a tread pattern to improve traction and make them resistant to abrasion.
Vibram soles hit the market in the 1950s, and in 1954 the first successful expedition to K2, the second highest mountain on Earth, was conquered by climbers wearing Vibram rubber soles.
