for a Level 2 pass (higher protection). From the left, the numbers correspond to: the boots' Height, its Abrasion Resistance, its Impact Cut resistance, and its Traverse Rigidity. For Height, 1 is short, and 2 is tall. For other categories, 1 denotes rudimentary protection, while 2 indicates better protection. Along with the numbers – if a boot meets the most recent version of the CE standard – the label on the boot will read 'EN 13634:2017'. This standard has four mandatory and six optional tests. These optional tests include 'IPA' for ankle or shin protection, 'WR' for water resistance or 'WAD' for the displacement of water from inside. This EN13634 standard is titled "Protective footwear for motorcycle riders – Requirements and test methods". It is a European harmonized standard published throughout Europe and in the UK by BSI. Abrasion resistance: The abrasion resistance test is designed to check how well boots will prevent injury from abrasion. For testing, the boot is divided into two areas – Area A covers the sole, front and back of the boot, where you’re most likely to find stretch panels, and everything else is Area B. Three samples of material are cut from the boot, and each is held against a moving abrasive belt until a hole appears. The shortest time it took for a hole to develop in one of the samples dictates the boot’s abrasion rating. For basic Level 1 approval, samples cut from area A must last 1.5 seconds, and samples from area B need to last five seconds. To reach the higher Level 2, area A samples need to last 2.5 seconds or longer, while area B must survive at least 12 seconds without wearing through. Impact cut: Next, the boots are tested to see how they’d hold up if they came up against a sharp object. For this, a blade attached to a mounting block is dropped onto a sample of the boot; apparatus measures how far the blade goes through the boot. The tests use the same areas as the abrasion test (see above) and the blade is dropped at different speeds to test each area. When testing area A, the knife will be dropped at two metres per second (m/s). For a Level 1 and a Level 2 rating, the knife can’t protrude through the material by more than 25m. Area B is tested by dropping the blade