If you live somewhere that regularly has lengthy and harsh winters, you’ll need high-quality boots in order to survive the season. Whilst cheaper boots are tempting, the best way forward is to opt for premium winter footwear with a $300 budget. Otherwise, you may need to replace them every year.
Having tried numerous premium boots, the following boots are the Best Winter Boots For Men Under $300:
- Blucher Boot: Johnston & Murphy Shearling
- Work Boot: Danner Bull Run Christy
- Hiking Boot: Irish Setter Elk Tracker
- Moc-Toe Boot: Red Wing Heritage
- Blucher Boot: UGG Hannen TL
Use the links above if you want to jump ahead to a particular pair. Afterwards, we’ll talk about the advantages of premium boots and why they tend to present better value for money.
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- Style: Blucher Boot
- Formality: Business Casual
- Pricing: $225 [Buy On Johnston & Murphy]
Overview
One of our all-time favourite winter boots, we love these stylish yet practical creations from Johnston & Murphy’s 1850 Collection. Although more suited for milder winters, they’re still very functional and feature a genuine shearling lining, crepe rubber sole and a storm welt that offers both waterproofing and recrafting.
How To Wear
If you want to dress appropriately for winter yet still look great, these are our first choice. Their iconic blucher style has artisanal details and they’re made from premium Italian calfskin. You could happily wear these casually but also sport them with more business casual dress codes.
Best Colors
These are only available in brown with no dressy black options available. Nevertheless, they’re still very much wearable with a more dress-down and stylish suit. However, we’d consider them mostly for business casual wear.
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- Style: Work Boots
- Formality: Casual
- Pricing: $220 [Buy Now On Zappos]
Overview
Not only does the hand-made construction feature non-marking and slip-resistant Danner wedge outsoles, a comfortable PU footbed and fibreglass shank but these are ASTM F2892-11 approved soft toe work boots. They’re stunning American-made boots that aren’t exclusive to the work site.
How To Wear
Despite being work boots, we love to wear these casually. The distressed-style and oiled leather is stunning yet hard-wearing whilst the cream Danner soles contrast nicely from the tan welt. They’re not insulated but leave ample space for thick woollen socks for extra insulation.
Best Colors
Despite being only available in brown, it has a distressed and oiled effect that gives it a variety of nuances depending on how they’re treated. They buff nicely to a shine but you can also enjoy a worn and rustic look if you leave them to age naturally.
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- Style: Hiking Boots
- Formality: Casual
- Pricing: $260 [Buy Now On Zappos]
Overview
Probably our favourite hiking boots, these 12″-high monsters are solid and give long-term performance. Made by Red Wing’s outdoor and seasonal brand, you can expect great quality as well as a Gore-Tex and Thinsulate lining to keep your feet warm and dry.
How To Wear
Although they’re tool and conspicuous walking boots, they’re surprisingly easy to wear fashionably. We love them with various types of wool and tweeds that have been layered for an overall rustic and vintage look.
Best Colors
Available only in a brown full-grain leather, we’re not particularly disappointed that there isn’t more choice. In fact, it would be hard to imagine this particular boot style in another colour!
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- Style: Blucher Boot
- Formality: Casual
- Pricing: $290 [Buy Now On Zappos]
Overview
We were impressed by these Norwegian-style Moc-toe boots by Red Wing. With a Goodyear welt and oil-tanned leather, they’re durable and offer great water resistance. Furthermore, the iconic Crepe wedge sole by Red Wing performs well in both icy and wet conditions.
How To Wear
With their moccasin-style toe, these boots carry strong connotations of mountain trails and Americana. They look great as casual boots and are very easy to wear with most wardrobes. However, we favour them with particularly vintage and rustic hipster styling.
Best Colors
We love the contrast found between the uppers, welt and sole in the nuanced Copper & Tough leather colour. However, there’s also pebbled black or dark briar brown as well as a suede-like mid-brown too.
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- Style: Blucher Boots
- Formality: Casual
- Pricing: $230 [Buy Now On Zappos]
Overview
The Australian brand experienced unparalleled success with its cosy slipper-like boots for women nearly a decade ago but they’ve learned to move with the times. We were pleasantly surprised by these classic blucher-style boots that their UGGpure lining for comfort down to -20°C / -4°F. They’re also waterproof and feature great traction thanks to the Treadlite soles.
How To Wear
These are great boots especially for around town. They’re not quite as rugged as other boots in the list so we’d prefer to reserve them for milder, urban environments. However, they’re great when worn casually and will even complement business casual styles for wearing at the office.
Best Colors
It’s tough too choose between the Cordovan and black leather options. We’d probably go for the Cordovan but they’re very casual. For something more office friendly, the black boots are a solid choice too.
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Are $300 Winter Boots Worth It?
In our other budget-oriented guides to winter boots, we explain how the price of a boot often has a direct correlation with its performance and quality. When looking at the difference between $100 and $200 winter boots, the distinction is clear.
However, $300 winter boots are an altogether different breed. Rather than being truly better performing winter footwear than $200 boots, they’re more premium and tend to be much more stylish.
This is often because the extra costs for making these boots aren’t necessarily injected into the boots performance but its aesthetics and overall quality instead.
If you’re looking for something that lasts a good number of years and keeps your feet warm and dry, by all means check out our guide to the best boots under $200.
However, if you want something that you enjoy to wear and feels good, stick around and see what you can get from $300 boots.
Traditional Craftsmanship
Firstly, you’ll have likely noticed that each of the boots above don’t look like contemporary winter boots. In fact, they’re not necessarily exclusively winter boots but simply high-quality and extremely durable footwear.
For instance, each of these boots have been made using a Goodyear welt with the exception of the Ugg and Danner boots, which both offer different features.
We often talk about the Goodyear welt and its benefits but let’s go through it again. A Goodyear welt is a construction technique that fixes the leather upper, insole and outsole together.
It is one of the most complex, time-consuming and expensive techniques. However, it provides the most durability, excellent water resistance and also the opportunity to replace the soles as many times as is necessary.
In theory, this means that you can own the same boots for decades and never have to change them.
Furthermore, this price point means that manufacturers can also use high-grade quality leather, which is going to be more robust and durable. Many of the options are made from full-grain leather. This comes from near the spine’s hide and has very dense fibres.
As such, it doesn’t lose it shape or damage easily. It also has more water-resistance properties before even being treated.
Finally, each of the soles used on these boots are of excellent quality. Whilst some are crepe rubber, others have pronounced lugs for extra traction. In both cases, they’ll give you all the necessary traction during a harsh winter.
But Are These Boots Insulated?
Admittedly, only three of the five boots here are insulated. The first one is Johnston & Murphy, which features genuine shearling leather. This is a special leather hide that is taken from a sheep that has been recently shorn.
As such, the inner side consists of its real wool that offers extraordinarily efficient insulation properties.
As for the Irish Hunter Elk Trackers, they use the very thick 1000g version of Thinsulate’s ultra lining. Although this makes it a heavy boot, we have yet to find a warmer one.
The other insulated option on this list is from Ugg. Their Uggpure lining is natural wool woven into a durable backing. It’s very comfortable and keeps your feet toasty.
With regards to the other two boots, they’re made from a special oil-tanned leather that although doesn’t insulate on its own, it acts as an excellent membrane when paired with thick socks.
Final Thoughts
If you just need something practical, maybe these aren’t the boots for you. However, if you want something that will both truly look and feel good as well as last decades, these may be boots worth considering.
Each of them have their own characteristics and properties that make them stand out from the crowd. Whilst it was hard to choose the best overall, you can be the judge of that depending on your own needs.
What Next?
Having now explored the best winter boots under $300 for men, why don’t you peruse our other related shoe and boots guides?
- Best Winter Boots Under $100
- Best Winter Boots Under $200
- Warmest Winter Boots For Men
- Most Stylish Winter Boots For Men
"Stylish and great quality! I wanted something presentable to wear going out. These were perfect!"Rating: 5.0 ★★★★★
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