Are Duck Boots Good For Snow? Guide To Optimising Your Duck Boots For Snowy Weather

Best Duck Boots For Snow

Featured from our Best Snow Boots guide, check out our favourite snow boots for winter conditions:

Why Wear Duck Boots In The Snow?

If you live in a part of the world where it snows, you will simply not survive comfortably without proper gear. You’ll need overcoats and scarves for your tailored outfits, and you’ll need something like a quilted coat and Thinsulate gloves for when you inevitably need to shovel your sidewalk or driveway.

Your footwear is no exception. Those gym shoes might be comfy, but they’re not going to cut it when there’s snow and ice on the ground. Unless you’re alright with having cold, wet feet.

Whether you’re a country man, suburbanite or a complete townie, you’re likely to come across snow at one point. Therefore, you’ll need to be properly equipped with the right shoes when it happens.

There are many options. However, duck boots are an excellent choice. In the following guide, we’ll be taking a close look at duck boots and how they fare in snowy conditions.

Thanks to their rubber soles and toe boxes, duck boots are securely sealed to offer a fully waterproof shoe. Whilst this may not sound obvious when walking through snow, remember that the white stuff melts.

This is a particular issue when walking through snow. As your feet will release heat, loose snow caught on the shoe will slowly turn into water. As you continue on your merry way, it begins to seep through most shoes and leak.

Eventually you’ll have wet feet, which is terribly uncomfortable when things get cold.

Fortunately, duck boots effortlessly overcome this. Furthermore, their leather uppers are easy to waterproof with grease and dubbin, which makes them comfortable too.

What To Look For In Quality Duck Boots?

Not only are duck boots good in the snow, they’re your best footwear option in the snow if you’re not in Antarctica. An important detail to keep in mind is that not all duck boots are necessarily made for wear in snowy conditions.

As mentioned above, any duck boot will keep your feet dry, but only duck boots lined in something like shearling or Thinsulate will keep your feet both warm and dry.

The additional warmth naturally comes with additional expense. However, it’s almost essential to have lined duck boots. If they’re unlined, then you don’t necessarily reap the benefits that they can truly offer.

However, the decision regarding lined or unlined duck boots can be made based on how often you find yourself in blizzard-like conditions. If it only snows lightly once or twice a year where you live, save a few dollars and go with an unlined pair, wearing thick socks as needed.

Nevertheless, if you live in, say, America’s Midwest or Northeast, you’ll want some lined duck boots for sure.

How To Wear Duck Boots

Living in the suburbs, I have a driveway and a sidewalk to shovel. There’s no way I’d be able to get this done in regular shoes without his feet freezing.

These Sorel boots are heavy-duty, lined with Thinsulate to keep the feet warm, and totally waterproof. Leave it to a Canadian company to make a great snow boot.

Pairing these duck boots with jeans and a winter coat is hands-down the easiest way to wear duck boots. As one of the more utilitarian shoe styles a man can keep in his closet, it follows logic that they would pair well with more casual garments.

With that said, if there’s a bunch of snow and slush on the ground, no one should give you a hard time if you wear duck boots with your business professional attire, so long as you change into proper dress shoes when you get to the office.

Alternatively, wearing flannel pajama pants underneath your jeans (pictured above) is a surefire way to maintain a lot of warmth in the cold.

Layering is key in frigid temperatures, but we have a tendency to only layer our upper bodies -tee, button-down, sweater, sport coat, and overcoat- while our lower halves get covered in a single layer of cloth and that’s it.

I’ve had these Sorel boots for a while and he’s a huge fan. Sorel’s offering are among the top 5 best duck boots that we feature in our guide. Furthermore, they can be found on Amazon for only around $80 depending on your size and options.

Note the height of these boots. They have a 6-inch shaft, and while it may not seem like a lot, the extra coverage is a huge bonus when it’s cold and the ground is covered in snow.

A Final Thought On Duck Boots

Duck boots are an absolute must if you live anywhere that experiences snowfall every year. Remember that not all duck boots are created equal. Some are lined with shearling or Thinsulate which will make them great for snowy weather but too warm for simple rain.

Now that you’re more familiar with duck boots, we encourage you to take a look through our shoe style guide and various footwear reviews.