Shraks vs DeWalt Safety Footwear: Weight, rating, grip and price, side by side.
DeWalt is a name UK trades already trust on tools, and the safety footwear range trades on that. Shraks is not a tool brand extension: it is a work shoe built to be worn all day.
The comparison worth making is on specification, not on the badge. Here are the nine points that decide it, starting with the safety rating.
Check the current specification of any pair you are considering. Ranges within a brand vary widely, and a line can change between seasons.
Note: this comparison uses publicly listed specifications. Brand names belong to their owners and neither brand has endorsed this page.
1. Safety rating
Shraks: EN ISO 20345:2022 S1PSDeWalt: S1 FO HRO PS SR
Most people buy on the look of the shoe and take the word safety on the listing to mean something. It doesn't; the letters after it do. DeWalt and Shraks both carry the S1P family of markings, so on certification there is genuinely nothing between us, and you should ignore anyone who tells you otherwise. What the class actually promises is that a toe cap, an antistatic sole and a puncture-resistant midsole were tested in a lab instead of written by a marketing team. Read the letters before you read anything else on a page.👉 See the Moon
2. The toe cap
Shraks: Steel toe cap, tested to 200 joulesDeWalt: Composite
The usual advice is that steel is the serious option and composite is the soft one, which is simply wrong. Both DeWalt's composite cap and the steel cap in a Shraks pass the same 200 joule impact test, and a cap that passes is a cap that passes. The real difference is volume: steel is thinner at equal protection, so it takes less room off your toes, while composite is lighter and won't set off a metal detector. Pick on where you work and what you walk through, not on which material sounds tougher.👉 See the Moon
3. Puncture resistance
Shraks: Puncture-resistant KevlarDeWalt: Composite underfoot protection
Almost everyone reads a thick, chunky sole as a sole that stops a nail. Sole thickness has nothing to do with it: the only thing that stops a nail is a certified anti-penetration layer, which is what the P in the rating is for and why a trainer with no P will let a roofing nail through a centimetre of rubber. DeWalt and Shraks both have that layer, ours in Kevlar. The insight worth keeping is that this is a separate test from the toe cap, so a shoe can protect your toes completely and your arch not at all.👉 See the Moon
4. Upper
Shraks: Breathable meshDeWalt: Nubuck leather and fabric
The received wisdom is that leather is the hard-wearing choice and mesh is the flimsy one, and on abrasion that is fair: DeWalt's leather upper will outlast mesh against a kerb or a ladder rung. What nobody mentions is the cost of it. Stiff leather is why work footwear has a break-in period at all, and why the first fortnight in a new pair is spent on blisters. Shraks uses breathable mesh, which is lighter, cooler and far less stiff to start with, and which is not waterproof. How long a shoe takes to settle is a property of the material, not a rite of passage.5. Insole
Shraks: Cushioned and removableDeWalt does not state this on the product page.
Most people put up with the insole a shoe came with, and the ones who can't buy an insert and hope it fits. DeWalt's page never says whether its insole comes out, which is the answer you least want when you already wear orthotics. The Shraks footbed is cushioned and removable, so yours goes in on day one. A glued-in insole doesn't just feel worse, it makes the shoe unusable for anyone carrying a prescription insert, and that is a lot of this trade.
6. Sizing
Shraks: EU 35 to 47DeWalt: UK 7-12
The standard approach to a narrow size range is to take the nearest size up and wear a thicker sock, which moves the blister rather than preventing it. DeWalt lists UK 7-12, while Shraks runs one range across the whole line. A size range that starts where men's sizes start tells you which foot the last was cut for, and everyone outside that range is buying a scaled-down version of a shoe designed for someone else.7. Price
Shraks: £79.99DeWalt: £54.99 (sale, was £64.99)
We are not the cheap option on this page and it would be insulting to pretend otherwise. DeWalt undercuts Shraks, carries a certified rating, and for a lot of people that settles it, particularly if the shoes take a beating and get replaced every few months. What the lower price does not tell you is how long the pair lasts or how the eighth hour feels, and neither page can prove that to you. Buy on price where the work is hard on shoes, and on the rest of this table where it is hard on feet.8. Returns window
Shraks: 30-day returnsDeWalt: 30 days, unworn
Both shoes give you 30 days, so on this row there is nothing to choose and we won't invent something. It is still the most useful row on the page, because it is the only one that lets you test the thing neither page can tell you. Every spec above this line can be read off a screen; whether a shoe suits your foot after nine hours cannot, and a month of real shifts is the only instrument for it.9. Weight
Shraks states about 420 grams a shoe. DeWalt publishes no figure you can put beside it, so we do not compare it.Lightweight is the most used word in this category and the least often followed by a number. DeWalt does not publish a weight for this shoe, which means the claim can't be checked, and it is not unusual: of the sixteen competitor products we priced for these pages, twelve publish no weight at all, and the four that do never say whether the figure is for one shoe or the pair. Shraks states about 420 grams a shoe. The insight is that weight is the spec you feel every single day and the one the industry is quietest about, which is unlikely to be a coincidence.
