Abstract: In this paper, a model for identifying the type of common sole materials was established by means of mid-infrared analysis technology and chemometrics. This model can provided an effective new method for identification of the material type of soles. A hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted and a K-nearest neighbor model was set up on the basis of the infrared spectral matrix data of soles. The results indicated that 43 samples could be divided into 7 categories in the K-nearest neighbor model, which is consistent with the categorizing result that the average distance between groups was 8 in the hierarchical clustering. Under the K-nearest neighbor condition, the samples were distributed in five aggregation regions, among which H, G and K samples exhibited an obvious distribution. Compared to the class A, the distribution of class E was relatively concentrated, and the degree of convergence was larger. The class L and M were split into the class E and A, respectively. The total identification accuracy of the model reached 95.35 %, indicating an ideal categorizing result. In addition, one sample of each category was selected and analyzed with spectrogram. The main components of them were achieved as butadiene rubber, ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, polyurethane, isoprene rubber, polyvinyl chloride and styrene-butadiene-styrene block copolymer. In summary, the mid-infrared analysis technology combined with chemometrics can realize a non-destructive, rapid and accurate identification for common sole materials.