Hi @TomS, in the video it looks like the sole is a polygon mesh which gets deformed using cage edit. Not shure about the script used to add the pads, it appears to be a mesh deformation using the pads height.
If you create your sole using a nurbs surface, you might try adding custom pads using the _Splop command. Once the pad has been transfered to the sole, fillet it manually using _FilletSrf command to get room for a nice blend between the pad and the sole. The pad surface can just be open on one side, similar as shown in the video.
c.