Food service and various other retail/hospitality jobs usually require one thing that before you start the gig. Black, non slip work shoes. This is super annoying because anyone who likes sneakers would rather spend their cash on flashy, fun shoes. You don’t want to be slip-sliding through the kitchen so you bite the bullet and purchase even though you aren’t happy about it. Luckily, Snibbs is trying to make comfortable more fashionable shoes for these types of jobs. The Snibbs Spacecloud Non Slip Work Sneaker is built for on your feet all day, sometimes messy jobs. And it doesn’t look bad.
Snibbs offered to send a few pairs our way so we recruited three testers with jobs that require non slip work sneakers. For two to three weeks they put the Snibbs Spacecloud through whatever their job could throw at them and then sat down and wrote a review. Here’s a little about our three testers:
Lancelot Rose is a father, sneakerhead, calisthenics fan, occasional gamer and anime nerd. A big proponent of active self actualization towards a better world.
Jacob Manahan is a 23 year old living in the North Chicagoland area where he works as a manager at Starbucks. He developed an interest in sneakers/footwear after starting to collect with his partner Fatima. You can follow on Instagram where he uses the @jdmanah handle.
Elijah Guillermo is a budding sneakerhead and the number 1 Nike Cosmic Unity stan.
Now, let’s dig into how the Snibbs Spacecloud performed:
Materials
Lancelot: Wearing these at multiple jobs leaves a few things to note. The materials are soft and comfortable. They didn’t give my normal width foot any issues. The reviews on their site say the Spacecloud either fits correctly or run a little small but I felt they were true to size.
It has a fabric upper and foam midsole. When mopping the floor, I can tell the Spacecloud is water resistant but not waterproof. If you spill something on them, you’ll still get wet socks. The benefit of this is they don’t get super hot like waterproof shoes do. But the materials are very easy to clean and that’s an advantage. They have cotton laces that look like they have a wax coating on them so not the best feeling laces, but they didn’t come untied even after a long day.
Jacob: The Vegan materials used allow the Snibbs Spacecloud to be worn by people of all walks of life, but the soft fabric will be a setback for some potential customers. Many workspaces, especially in the food industry, require an all-leather shoe to be worn by employees. Although the Spacecloud’s water resistant materials generally perform well, it’s nowhere near as effective in keeping hot spills off the foot as a leather shoe. This, combined with the rather bulky silhouette and casual style of the sneaker, might make the Spacecloud a less than ideal option for some servers, bartenders, baristas, and chefs.
Elijah: The shoes’ upper is constructed of a neoprene-like fabric that feels very soft around your feet while still maintaining lockdown. The overall construction of the upper feels reminiscent of the Nike Air Presto. A thin, yet substantial TPU mudguard runs along the toebox of the lebron 19. The mudguard adds a level of protection if you work in an environment with lots of sharp edges or just a lot of potential hazards lying around wherever you walk. Since I work in a fast-food restaurant, I do come in contact with hot oils from cleaning and filtering fryers which can gunk up my footwear. My Spaceclouds did get dirty during the weartesting period, however, they clean up well with a small wash. On that note, the upper seems to be waterproof as my socks didn’t get wet or stained while I was washing dishes, so that’s an added bonus.
Traction
Lancelot: The Snibbs Spacecloud features herringbone traction. It’s pretty good, even better than most shoes, especially a lot of basketball shoes. Wearing Air Jordan 1s on a wet surface is not a good decision and like asking to eat the floor. I think Snibbs could use improvements on the rubber compound as well as improve the design. With the current design, if you work in an environment with a very messy floor, the whole outsole gets caked with whatever was on the floor, filling all the crevices. The traction pattern has little groves as well as the large grooves and maybe they could mix it up even more. All in all, I would say they perform better on a wet surface than most shoes. Not the best, but definitely very good, even when caked with cornmeal.
Jacob: Whether working in a kitchen, tending bar or walking down a freshly mopped hallway, a wet floor will pose no problem when wearing the Spacecloud. The non slip sole fantastically grips the floor and maintains the wearer’s safety when working in an environment prone to spills, leaks, or general moisture. It earns the non slip work sneaker title it receives in the company’s marketing materials.
Elijah: If you’re a fan of 1990’s outdoor basketball shoes, you might be drawn to the Spaceclouds’ full-length herringbone traction pattern. However, the traction is possibly the weakest part of the shoe, as it is prone to sliding. The shoes don’t have much of a bite on dry floors and can get a lot of food/gunk within the grooves of the herringbone. The traction can be cleaned quickly with a bit of a spray down, but it still does not hold up well in my workplace, especially when it comes to washing kitchen or bathroom floors. The traction on the Snibbs Spacecloud is my biggest complaint.
Cushion
Lancelot: 10 of 10. I’m just starting off with that. This is hands down the best part of the shoe. The foam they use for the midsole along with the ortholite insole make for a fantastic combination. You can easily work a 10+ hour shift and not notice your feet starting to ache until beyond that. I don’t think i could recommend this shoe enough to a nurse or people regularly on their feet all day.
Jacob: The comfort of the Spacecloud can also be called into question. Although, the Ortholite insole offers a nice amount of padding at first, it’s the only real cushion I feel the shoe provides. There is also very little support given by the construction, and although standing still will remain a comfortable task when wearing the Spacecloud, any excessive movement will eventually become laborious, and the shoe will do little to prevent sore feet.
Elijah: Right off the bat, I could definitely tell that the comfort was the main focus of the Snibbs Spacecloud and it lives up to its name upon first try. The Spacecloud features a dual-layered Ortholite insole, and it’s a thick one at that. As a sneakerhead, the cushion is more akin to Nike’s React foam or Adidas’ Adilette Comfort series in terms of how pillowy it feels on feet.
Now does it work well in a restaurant setting? Not so much for my feet. The excess amount of cushion was not therapeutic in my experience as it led to a number of knee and foot pains the longer I wore the shoes. As the insole bottomed out over time, it reached a more tolerable and neutral state which did lessen the discomfort but only to a certain extent. If you want a lot of cushion in your shoes, the Spacecloud is for you. However, if you prefer a more stable ride, look somewhere else.
Fit
Lancelot: It felt pretty good to me with a true to size pair. I noticed many people had to go a half size up. However, that could be a wide foot issue. The Spacecloud has a similar cage concept to the Adidas Ultraboost. It gets the job done but could be uncomfortable for some.
Jacob: The slip-on cut of the shoe allows the Spacecloud to be very easily put on in a rush. The inclusion of two plastic panels on the inside and outside of the shoe, when tightly laced, help to maintain a comfortably snug and reinforced fit.
Elijah: While a little on the loose side, my recommendation for sizing on the Spacecloud is true to size. The shoes stay on due in part to the sock-like construction of the shoe, as well as some additional lockdown on the achilles. The shoes also feature some good lateral stability thanks to an additional heel counter as well as the TPU cages on the midfoot. The laces don’t add much to the lockdown as I could barely get them to cinch down on my feet. However, the lack of lace function does not detract from the lockdown. While I’m not about to cut the shoes in half to see the inner workings of its tech, I do feel something of a midfoot plate underneath the foam strobel. That stiffness adds more to the linear stability of the shoe. So, my sizing recommendation is TTS for standard-width feet; wide-footers may want to go up a half size.
Snibbs Spacecloud Overall
Lancelot: The Snibbs Spacecloud is incredibly comfortable, recommended for environments that don’t have super dirty floors and anywhere you stand on your feet for long periods of time. This shoe is a great practical work shoe. The Spacecloud definitely beats my previous favorite work sneaker (which is not a real non slip work sneaker) in terms of both comfort and traction on wet floors.
Jacob: Overall, the Spacecloud is a serviceable sneaker for most working environments. The benefits of the shoe are its comfort, low-profile design and especially its non-slip outsole. Critiques can be found in the lack of more effective water-resistant materials, lack of support during long-term wear, and a very casual and clearly non-leather build that may be unacceptable in some workplaces.
Elijah: With its rather poor traction, I wouldn’t recommend the Snibbs Spacecloud to those in the market for non slip shoes. The shoes are very comfortable, more so than many in the non-slip market. Despite my criticism of the shoe, its ultra-cushioned nature has the potential to inspire more tech-heavy work shoes. air jordan 1 has already made some Fresh Foam restaurant shoes, same with Vans and their PopCush insoles, so who knows? Maybe we’ll see some Nike React or Adidas Boost work shoes in the future. Nonetheless, the Snibbs Spacecloud, for as much as it lives up to its name, holds lots of potential but performs poorly as a non slip work sneaker.
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