The tread is well-grooved for excellent traction. Airpods will not charge with these on, which I didnt think would be a problem, but sadly it is. That worked great. Im impressed with how easy it was to install. really hard to size these as description is very vague. We have several pairs now. Sometimes they totally disconnect and I have to put one of the buds back in the case and take it back out to get re-connected. Changing the rubber dome to small on the right and keeping the standard medium sized dome on the left was the winning combo and they stay in my ears with a solid seal and no danger of it moving out! So without the key we had to return to Amazon. And they look so cute and cool!