Military technologies often trickle down to improve civilian life. Duct tape, portable fire extinguishers, Epipens and GPS were all things originally developed for military purposes. The same pipeline might be coming for footwear.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Lowell are collaborating with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center to improve the combat boot. The work is sorely needed; in an Army-conducted survey, thousands of soldiers reported they'd rather buy their own combat boots than wear the Army-issued models.undefined

Image: U.S. Army

Led by Chemistry professor James Reuther, the research team is working to make the boots more comfortable and, crucially, self-healing; soldiers on remote bases or on patrol who sustain damage to their boots cannot expect speedy replacements.

The researchers are addressing these issues with material science. Combat boot outsoles are typically made of rubber. Reuther and his team are experimenting with polyurethane. While PU is a common material in sneakers, the researchers have tweaked the formula:

"Reuther and his lab group created dynamic chemical bonds that they incorporated into polyurethane to provide a self-healing property to boot outsoles, in which a tear would mend itself. 'That's our secret sauce,' Reuther says. 'Because of this dynamic bond exchange, the outsole can heal itself spontaneously when we apply heat or pressure.'"

Image: Brooke Coupal

"Reuther intends to incorporate the same self-healing property into synthetic leather. They envision this leather replacing cowhide leather in the upper part of combat boots, such as in the tongue. As with polyurethane, synthetic leather is lightweight compared to cowhide and easier to break in."

Image: Brooke Coupal

"'Our research is specifically being applied to combat boots, but because of the way we designed this chemistry, it can be broadly applied to all footwear and beyond,' Reuther says."

As a bonus, Reuther and his team have figured out how the boots can be broken down and recycled after use; footwear is famously difficult to recycle, but the researchers say they've cracked it by "integrating a specific chemical bond."

"Our goal is that you can introduce these chemical bonds to applications that pose the biggest sustainability problems, preventing them from entering landfills," Reuthers says. "We're seeing how commercially viable this could be."