Sole Mate

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Form arbitrary pairs or trios across the room without social friction or cliquing.

Use it when: Use at the start of a collaborative workshop when you need people paired up quickly for a discussion or exercise.

Skip it when: Skip when participants have mobility limitations that make walking and lifting feet uncomfortable, or in settings where footwear is removed or uniform.

Group arrangement: Whole group mingling to form pairs (or one trio if the headcount is odd)

Timing: Source indicates under 5 minutes; planned for 5 minutes total.

Materials and tools

• No materials required (requires participants to have footwear or an accessible proxy attribute)

Before participants arrive

1. Clear enough floor space for the entire group to stand, walk, and mingle safely.

Say this to open

We need partners for our next exercise. To mix things up without overthinking, we are going to play Sole Mate. In a moment, stand up and check the bottoms or sides of your shoes. Your goal is to find one person whose sole pattern, color, material, or shoe style is similar to yours. Once you both agree on a match, stand together. If you prefer not to look at shoes, you can match on watch bands or socks instead.

How to run it

1. Explain the matching task 1 minutes

   State the rule: each person looks for one partner whose shoe tread, sole thickness, color, or general shoe style matches theirs. Clarify that any shared feature counts once both people agree.

2. Mingle and compare 2 minutes

   Participants circulate, check footwear, and talk briefly to compare traits. As pairs form, they step to the edge of the room. If an odd number is present, the final unmatched person joins any existing pair to form a group of three.

3. Verify partnerships 1 minutes

   Check the room. Ask any remaining individuals to raise their hands and pair up immediately based on the best remaining match.

4. Transition to work 1 minutes

   Invite two pairs to call out the oddest similarity they used to justify their match. Then direct the newly formed pairs directly to their next working prompt.

Debrief questions

• What specific detail did you use to convince your partner you were a match?
• Did you find someone right away, or did you have to negotiate a stretch comparison?

Finished output: Every participant paired (with at most one trio) and positioned for the next working session.

Remote

This physical footwear mechanic does not work naturally on video calls. For a remote alternative with the same pairing mechanic, ask everyone to hold an everyday desktop item (like a pen, mug, or notebook) up to their camera. Have participants scan the gallery view and type a direct message to someone whose item shares a color or material to form their breakout pair.

Hybrid

Pair in-person participants with in-person participants using the shoe comparison. Pair online participants separately in the digital platform using the desktop item match in chat.

Access and participation choices

• Participants who prefer not to lift their feet or look down may match based on sock color, cuff styles, or wrist accessories.
• Anyone may opt out of mingling and request that the facilitator assign them directly to an open partner.

If the session gets stuck

Two people get stuck because their shoes look completely unique compared to everyone else.

Remind them that creative arguments count. A boot lug and a sneaker tread both have deep grooves, or two flat soles share a smooth texture.

An odd number of participants leaves one person standing alone.

Immediately assign the remaining participant to the closest pair to create a working group of three.

Terms used here

• Tread: The grooved pattern molded into the bottom of an outer shoe sole.