Winter Boots on the Cheap

It’s been a pretty long winter here in Maine so far. It’s late February and the weather guesser is saying that we’re in for another snowstorm by this weekend. Now the big deal here in Maine are “Bean Boots” made and sold by LL Bean. They’re nice… with leather uppers and rubberized lower parts of the boot. They’re great for the cold slushy muck of northern winter. But they are kind of pricey. And part of the problem with rubberized boots is that they trap moisture against your skin when your feet sweat.

Today I wanted to talk about another option…. Military surplus N-1B surplus Air Force mukluks. These were US issue for troops in Alaska and Greenland from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. So what the heck are mukluks, anyway ?

Mukluks are a cold weather boot designed and used by the indigenous peoples of the far north. These are normally made of canvas uppers and moose leather lower boots. Mukluks are not really waterproof, but they’re designed to wick moisture away from your feet as they sweat while you walk. Therein lies the “beauty” of this particular boot style. They don’t have to be waterproof because ice and snow are frozen, not liquid.

The base is a heavy wool inner bootie. Wool can absorb up to 6 times its weight in water.

The bottom of the boot takes a pair of wool insoles. These serve to prevent the cold ground from sucking heat from the bottom of your feet.

Stacking two of them together under the layer of the inner bootie. This wicks moisture away from your skin and traps heat against your foot.

The only modification I have made is longer laces cut from a length of parachute cord, so I can wrap the upper canvas slightly tighter around my leg to keep the snow out of my socks.

Here, both my surplus wool pants legs are tucked into the mukluks.

The mukluks are capable of keeping your feet warm down to about 30 plus below zero Fahrenheit. As long as the weather doesn’t get above freezing (32*F) your feet stay warm and toasty. Above freezing, I switch to a different type of boots with weatherproof leather and Thinsulate insulation.

The neat thing is — the civilian mukluks cost as much as $350 and up depending on the model you get. But these N-1B Lima bean green mukluks generally go for about $50 a pair. You’re not going to set the fashion world on fire — but who cares ? Better to have pea green boots than cold black, frost bitten toes. I pitched the ratty milsurp inserts and inner booties, then bought higher quality wool replacements. Under 1/3 the price of fashionable moose hide mukluks, and I won’t mind wearing them out. Once I get to the point where I can’t patch them up, I’ll simply chuck these in a dumpster and get a replacement set. But canvas can be stitched up a lot until then.