Abstract: A sole for footwear made of thermoplastic of sufficient transparency to permit display of the bottom of the article of footwear to which it is attached. In various embodiments of the invention an at least semitransparent thermoplastic sole is attached to an article of footwear with a patterned insole or inlay adjacent to the top of the sole and protected thereby or with a patterned inlay embedded within the thermoplastic sole. In a preferred embodiment an, at least, semi-transparent composition is provided by a blend of predominantly elastomeric block polymer and predominantly nonelastomeric block polymer with each of the block polymer types chosen from radial and linear block copolymers of conjugated, diene and monovinyl substituted hydrocarbon.