For what it's worth, I've worn a pair of Korkers wading boots for three years, and really abused them. From the beginning, I made sure to attach the soles properly, and never once have I ever had a single problem with the soles coming off, sliding around, or getting dislodged. They've been tough, long lasting, provided great traction, and, when I wanted them to, I was able to remove the soles without much fuss. I've used them in stream bottoms ranging from sand, silt, mud, and moss covered rocks, to gravel, boulders, flat sheets of shale, and jagged rocks, and they've always been 100% for me, never causing the slightest problem.

The only reason I'm looking to replace them is because, after three years of being worn hard and put away wet...spending entire years in the trunk of my car, the material on the upper is starting to wear out. Some cracks are appearing in the rubber, the brown fabric has worn down, and the laces are starting to go. The laces are probably actually my biggest gripe with them, as they need to be retied after an hour or so of fishing (they absorb water, then work loose...a single re-tie secures them while wet, and they're good till you're done fishing thereafter). I'm looking for the new boa system to cure that.

I've used the trail lug soles, flat felt soles,sticky rubber soles and studded felt. In my experience with these soles, they're just like other wading boots in terms of traction: in the water, if you don't want to slip and slide, get some felt under you.