"These Nootkas felted wool slippers could be your perfect pair if you want an open-back style slipper built with breathability and indoor use in mind."
- Bustle Magazine
Felted wool creates a temperature stable environment inside the slipper that discourages sweating. If you do sweat, wool will help manage it by absorbing mosisture, wicking it away from your foot surface and allowing it to quickly evaporate. Wool is also naturally anti-microbial and prevents odor causing bacteria from making your slippers stink.
There are a great many causes of foot sweat or general hyperhydrosis, as doctors call it. Genetics plays a role, overall health can impact foot sweat, the materials you choose for socks and shoes can have a big effect on how much you sweat. Most people don't know this, but many common prescription drugs and SSRIs can also cause or increase foot sweat. Foot sweat is a common issue for many people and we're happy to be able to bring a bit of relief.
Your feet, the impressive, functional structures that they are, contain a ton of sweat glands. About 250,000 to be precise, more than any where else on your body, and they can produce up to a pint of perspiration a day. That's a lot of sweat! To deal with that much sweat, the wicking performance of the fabric is the key to dryness and comfort. Wool's performance in extreme and damp conditions is virtually unmatched, even by today's advanced synthetic fabrics. Even natural fabrics like cotton can be a poor choice for slippers - cotton is ironically one of the poorest wicking fabrics on the market. To understand why wool is the best choice for slippers, you need to understand the chemistry of wool.
At a molecular level, wool is made of keratin, a complex organic substance formed by amino acids. As a fiber, keratin has some very impressive capabilities. It is lightweight, durable and can absorb up to 15% of its weight in water. Its fiber structure allows it to pull moisture away from your feet, absorb it, then transfer it away to the outer layers to evaporate into the air. This is how wool keeps your feet from getting hot and sweaty inside a slipper. Wool is also naturally anti-microbial due in part to it's lanolin. Lanolin has anti-fungal and antibacterial properties that protect the sheep's skin from infection. Derived from the animal's oil glands, lanolin is a mixture of wool fat and 25-30% water. For this reason we recommend our dye-free wool colors for sweaty feet because they are the least processed and contain the highest amount of lanolin. For suggestions on Nootkas Wool Slippers, click here.