Boots made for walkin’ … in snow
Beware of “Rotten Cotton.”
That’s the warning issued to shoppers Saturday at Coeur d’Alene’s Army-Navy Store. According to the resident expert, who has been selling winter boots for years, there’s no worse faux pas than donning cotton socks with snow boots.
“It’ll leave your liner soaking wet and your feet like an ice cube,” said boot saleswoman Lois Huber.
Moisture-wicking wool socks are the best, said Huber, who doled out advice on proper footware as customers browsed aisles of boots at the Government Way store. Though many customers were buying winter boots early this fall, Huber said many began rushing in this week with the snow.
Tammie Jacobson wasn’t planning to shop for boots Saturday, thinking her 11-year-old son Braeden could squeeze into his old boots for another year. He couldn’t, so the family went to Army-Navy for a new pair.
When the family first moved to North Idaho from sunny Las Vegas, Jacobson said she refused to wear boots. She said she just wasn’t used to the feel of clunky footwear. All it took was a good snow and numbness in her toes to change her mind.
Some locals are willing to sacrifice comfort – and even safety – for fashion, though.
Huber cringes when she talks about the teenage girls who come into the store with swollen feet and practically no feeling left in their toes because they were wearing tennis shoes or sandals instead of boots.
And then there are the people who are old enough to know better, Huber said, but for whatever reason don’t wear proper shoes. A painful slip on the ice later, Huber said, many come into the store looking for better traction.
A popular and inexpensive alternative to boots are shoe chains, which strap on right over any sort of shoe. The chains, which look very similar to tire chains, sell for about $13.
Sisters Sara and Rebecca Winzer wore tennis shoes Saturday as they shopped at the Silver Lake Mall. Both are awaiting the arrival of their new, high-fashion Yeti boots. Their stepmother, who lives in England, is shipping the pink and completely fur-covered boots in the mail.
Sara, 14, said the boots are very in-style overseas. In fact, she said, they’ve been hot for about a year now, and she expects the trend will eventually catch on in Idaho. “The style is about a year ago there, so in a year they’ll be in style here.”
At Payless Shoes on Ironwood Drive, Manager Ken Bosley said the most popular boot in the store is a suede and fur number that he likes to call the “Chewbacca boot.”
“They look very ‘Star Wars,’ ” he said.