My New Boots

This may be a mun­dane post by com­par­i­son to oth­ers, but I had to tell you about my new boots.  Per­son­al­ly, I hate win­ter boots.  I think most of them actu­al­ly suck at the job they are sup­posed to do.  I know how to dress for the cold, I lay­er, I wear my wool or wool/synthetic socks, make sure I keep mov­ing in the cold, etc. to keep the blood mov­ing, and all that jazz.

That said, sev­er­al months ago, I got a real­ly good deal on  a pair of new sur­plus Micky Mouse Boots.  The price was so good (late sum­mer pur­chase) that I said to myself, I have to give them a shot.  Even if I do not use them this win­ter, they are a per­fect addi­tion to my win­ter bug out gear.  So, I made the pur­chase.

Today, after our first snow storm of the year; 18″ of fresh pow­der and 50 MPH winds that was clas­si­fied as the equiv­a­lent of a stage two hur­ri­cane, I slipped them on before I went out­side.  I laced them up, but did­n’t tuck my pants into them.  The first thing  I noticed is that they were roomy in the toe area, which is always a con­cern to me.  But these felt good.  The sec­ond thing I noticed is that the top of the boots were clear­ly dig­ging into my leg because they are made to have your pants tucked into them.  No mat­ter, I was on my way out­side, and quick­ly in 30+ inch­es of plowed and drift­ed snow to get my car dug out.

My con­cern with boots is that I nev­er have a pair that can keep my feet warm.  I was real­ly con­cerned with how the Mick­ey Mouse Boots were going to per­form.  The tem­per­a­ture out­side was 25 — 28 degrees, and my legs and feet were plant­ed in the snow while I was shov­el­ing and clean­ing off the car.  I was out there for about an hour the first time.  Sur­pris­ing­ly, the boots and socks kept my feet pret­ty warm.  I know I per­spired while shov­el­ing… I could feel the sweat being wicked away from my back by my base lay­er.

On most days, my feet would have been frigid.  I think I also have a blood cir­cu­la­tion issue around my feet.  They always have got­ten cold quick­ly.  Some­thing I should have checked out with the doc­tor.  How­ev­er, today, my feet stayed toasty warm.  To say the least I was sur­prised.

As for weight, yes they are heavy.  I am sure they are a pound or more each in weight.  They had VERY stur­dy sup­port at the ankle are, and I would­n’t be afraid to climb a large rock with them.   They are rat­ed for some­thing like — 20 / — 30 degrees Fahren­heit, and seemed pret­ty com­fort­able to me over­all… The date the inside for the con­tract man­u­fac­tur­er was 1986.  A fea­ture I will nev­er use is the alti­tude air inlet nut on the side of each boot…

Over­all, they did a great job for me today, and I plan on wear­ing them again as need­ed.

I do know that there are a LOT of peo­ple out there that have had neg­a­tive expe­ri­ences with them, because when I Google “Mick­ey Mouse Boots” there is a lot of neg­a­tive com­men­tary that comes up when you sift through the noise.  How­ev­er, it was good to get to use a piece of gear that I nor­mal­ly would not get to use and test it out with some suc­cess.

What are your expe­ri­ences with Mick­ey Mouse Boots, if any.  I would be inter­est­ed to hear the hor­ror sto­ries and the suc­cess­es… I am sure there are read­ers out there that have pun­ished them at the edge of the world.  Please com­ment if you can.