This study identifies factors that affect slider performance and reports the effect of the nature of slider materials on wear behavior. Three factors relating to wear behavior are discussed: slider shape, wear data reproducibility and patterns of wear behavior. First, the performance of various sliders shows a strong correlation to the slider crown shape. Second, wear behavior is more reproducible when unlubricated disks replace lubricated disks. With lubricated thin-film disks, slider failure is reasonably reproducible, but when the failure occurs it is erratic. Although unlubricated disks show more reproducible wear data, the wear life of the disks is roughly an order of magnitude shorter than lubricated disks. It is important to recognize these factors before evaluating material differences in slider performance. Finally, multi-phase slider materials have more variation in failure patterns than single-phase slider materials; the difference is attributed to more flaws present in the multi-phase material.Presented as a Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers paper at the ASME/STLE Tribology Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, October 8–10, 1990