The Best Rain Boots for Men

Our Picks of Men's Rain Boots

Best Overall Men's Rain Boot

Bogs Classic II Tall

Flood Height: 15" | Weight per Pair: 4.64 lbs

Of the boots tested, the Bogs Classic II Tall felt and performed the nearest to perfection. They aren't the tallest boots we tested, but they are some of the most protective regardless. The seamless design ensures solid waterproofing, and 5.5mm of Neo Tech insulation protects against frigid waters. The Classic II Tall boots have a unique inner collar that wraps around the Achilles tendon for secure heel-lock support, which we really appreciated in muddy conditions. Details like the wider toe box and the handy heel studs that let us kick them off after a long day made these boots so wearable. “They are nearly easy enough to step into hands-free, and I had no problem wearing them all day,” our lead tester remarked.

We liked it, but some might find the heel collar overly constrictive. We also found these boots to be on the warmer side, and depending on the situation, they may feel too hot. “I felt comfortable in temps up to 60s in these boots,” our tester noted, but any warmer and we'd start to get sweaty feet. If you are looking for an all-around great rain boot, the Classic II Tall would be a good choice, especially if you aren't expecting to wear them in overly hot and humid environments. We also like The Original Muck Boot Company Wetland, which scored equally for weather protection, although we found them a bit less comfortable.

Read more: Bogs Classic II Tall review

Best Bang for Your Buck

Baffin Enduro

Flood Height: 16.25" | Weight per Pair: 5.49 lbs

The Baffin Enduro is about as classic as it gets. Close your eyes and imagine it's a wet and drizzly afternoon. You want to take the dog for an afternoon stroll. Imagine pulling on a pair of rain boots, and you're probably picturing something similar to the Enduro, and this classic design has stuck around for a reason. The Enduro stands 16.25 inches tall, has a rainproof and comfortably wide rubber shaft, and a solidly lugged outsole. These boots will keep you dry and comfortable in even the wettest and worst conditions. With their larger collar circumference, you can easily slip into and out of these boots, and tuck your pants in to protect them as well. Lastly, their price-to-performance ratio is fantastic. We've been wearing ours for almost 10 years and they're still going strong.

The Enduro is uninsulated, so you'll want to wear warmer socks in cold weather. We don't love the included insoles, so if you're wearing these often, we recommend finding a more structured insole. “Once I mastered my sock and insole game, I could happily spend entire days wearing these boots,” our tester stated. “They even kept me comfortable throughout a 14-hour workday.” We recommend this boot if you want the best price and don't need the most deluxe insulated option. If you want a more affordable insulated boot, look at the Kamik Forester.

Read more: Baffin Enduro review

Most Stylish

Blundstone Original Chelsea

Flood Height: 6.25" | Weight per Pair: 2.13 lbs

If you want your footwear selection to not only keep your feet dry, but also make people think, “nice shoes,” the Blundstone Original Chelsea is a winning choice. The attractive single-piece leather upper will mold to your foot over time, creating a custom level of comfort. The thick and durable TPU outsole does an excellent job at impact absorption, so long days on your feet don't leave you feeling foot sore and tired. Our tester said, “I'm not overly concerned with stylish footwear, but it felt good stepping out in a pair of rain boots that are functional and look pretty good too.”

Leather is naturally water-resistant, but it is not as waterproof as a full rubber boot. If submerged for longer periods, your feet will get wet. A periodic application of leather oil can help maintain the leather's water resistance and lovely sheen. The biggest drawback to these boots is that they require a break-in period for the leather to form to your foot, which is often the case with leather boots. Additionally, the flood height is lower and doesn't offer as much protection as a more traditional rain boot. Otherwise, if you're looking for a stylish boot that you can wear on a daily basis, the Blundstone Original Chelsea is the way to go. If you're looking for a casual, around-town boot but can't quite swing the price of the Blundstone, you might like the Sperry Cold Bay Chukka.

Read more: Blundstone Original Chelsea review

Best Deck Boot

Huk Rogue Wave

Flood Height: 6.5" | Weight per Pair: 3 lbs

While they are not the best-known deck boots, our testers found that the Huk Rogue Wave boots outperformed some of the most popular deck boots, especially in our comfort tests. The Huk boots were reliably comfortable for hours of heavy use and featured a better tread pattern for multi-surface traction. Other deck boots we tested felt too flexible and mushy underfoot, but the Huk has a more built-up and cushioned mid-sole that is supportive enough to wear for a full day.

Like all the low boots we tested, we found these boots somewhat fiddly to get on, and the outsole tends to hold onto dirt and small rocks that are hard to clean out. These are not a go-to pick for severe weather or stream crossings, but are perfect for lighter rain, runs to the mailbox in a rainstorm, and less intense conditions. “The Huk boots were a top choice when I headed out to do chores or run errands around town,” our tester said. Another deck boot option we like is the Bogs Kicker Chelsea Neo.

Read more: Huk Rogue Wave Review

Best Crossover Rain Boot

LL Bean 8" Gore-Tex/Thinsulate

Flood Height: 8" | Weight per Pair: 3.91 lbs

LL Bean boots have been around for over 100 years, and generations of Northeasterners have grown up wearing them; they're warm, protective, and durable. The LL Bean 8" Gore-Tex/Thinsulate live up to this standard, and were impressed with both how stylish and capable they are. They're a perfect blend of stylish lower boots and more rugged work boots. As a result, these are a great crossover shoe for when you might want to take your dog for a lap on the trail around town and then stop for a coffee on the way home. They are warm and comfortable, and most importantly for a rain boot, they keep water out.

Our biggest qualm with these boots is that we wish they had a slightly more tractioned outsole — the cable pattern does a decent job, but isn't as grippy as more serious workboots. Also worth noting, the insole of these boots is not the most impressive or comfortable. However, if you need a boot that looks great, but can still be considered a genuine light-duty work boot, we highly recommend this one from LL Bean. If you need something with more grip, you may like the Bogs Workman.

Read more: LL Bean 8" Gore-Tex/Thinsulate review

How We Tested

At this point, many years in, we've spent over 800 hours testing, wearing, and measuring various rain boots. We start with market research: hours of reading, assessing the competition, and surveying all the new boots released each season. Once we've gotten a pulse on the current market, we buy the most promising models at full price for hands-on testing over the course of several months. Tests are assessed by wearing the boots in various conditions over long days. We do our best to slog around in every weather we can find in the Washington Cascades, Western Montana Rockies, and California Sierra Nevada. We've tested these boots' weather protection by wading in the chilly Clark Fork River of Western Montana, the Yakima and Snoqualmie Rivers as they flow out of the snowy Cascades, and in the Atlantic Ocean on the Maine Coast. To test for comfort, we spent 20+ hours in every boot, prioritizing long stints (over 5 hours) and time on harder surfaces to ensure the test was as thorough on our feet as possible.

Our comprehensive tests are divided into five rating metrics:

• Weather Protection (30% of overall score weighting)

• Comfort (25% weighting)

• Traction (20% weighting)

• Wearability (20% weighting)

• Warmth (5% weighting)

For more on our test process, see our complete How We Test article.

Why Trust GearLab

Our main rain boot tester is Richard Forbes. Richard spends his time adventuring across the great Pacific Northwest and the cold northern Rockies, both ideal for his rain-boot-oriented lifestyle. Every day is a new opportunity to get outdoors, and he often finds himself wearing rain boots in ridiculous testing situations (from “approach rain boots” to “rock climbing rain boots” to "whitewater rain boots"). While guiding a few summers ago, he saw a tween exhaustedly slogging up the side of Mount Rainier in a pair of Bogs at 9,500 feet, and he was both inspired and worried (for the tween, the boots were doing well). Richard has worked as an environmental journalist, farmer, ecological researcher, collaborative facilitator, “footwear retail specialist,” conservationist, outdoor guide, and storyteller worldwide.

Dominik Bleeg assists by testing these boots in the Lake Tahoe area of California. With a self-tasked mission to take advantage of all the outdoor activities he is surrounded by, Dominik gets out into nature as often as possible. The deep winter snows and spring runoff of the Sierra Nevada provide the perfect mucky testing ground for waterproof boots.

Analysis and Test Results

Having soggy and damp feet is a sure-fire way to ruin your day. We consider each boot's weather protection, all-day comfort, grip, traction on wet ground, and overall wearability, writing our thoughts and observations along the way.

What's the Best Value?

We don't let price factor into our scoring system, but in reality, we know cost is important. After an absurd number of hours in rain boots, we are certain: more expensive rain boots almost always look and feel better while lasting longer. In other words, you typically get what you pay for, and if you need reliably waterproof footwear on a daily basis, it's probably worth the investment. On the other hand, if you don't wear rain boots often or don't spend much time in nasty weather, nothing says a good old budget pair of wellies won't do the trick.

The ultra-protective and insulated Bogs Classic II Tall offers more protection in cold weather and more creature comforts, but they are quite pricey. The Baffin Enduro is a boot that bucks the trends and works perfectly despite its lower price. It is uninsulated and has minimal underfoot cushion, but these boots are about half the price of top models and are incredibly durable. We've been wearing ours for almost 10 years, and they're still going strong. The Dunlop Chesapeake is half again the price of the Enduro. It's not as durable as the Enduro, or as comfortable as the Bogs, but if we're talking straight dollars vs. performance, it's the best value for tight budgets.

Weather Protection

Rain boots must be above all… waterproof; otherwise, what's the point? Waterproofing can get surprisingly complicated if you get into it (dive in for a few hours by researching hydrostatic head testing), but we define waterproof practically. Something is “waterproof” if we can stand in water up to the top of the shaft for 10 minutes and not get wet feet. We put each boot into all manner of waterways, from creeks and ponds to the ocean, literally all over the United States (at this point, we've tested in every region of the Lower 48, as rain boots come on every single trip we go on).

We put each boot through a standardized ten-minute wade test. With their impressive 18-inch high shaft, the Muck Boot Wetland boots eke out the win in the weather protection category. Their height prevents accidental splashes and easily protects your feet from rain, deep water, and dumping snow.

We tried fly-fishing in the high-shafted Baffin Enduro boots and only got water in them when we chased some trout into a deep pool (or weren't paying attention to how deep the water was). The Hunter Original Tall are the second-highest boots, offering good weather protection, and they are a bit more stylish for trips that take you about town.

Our tested boots feature a variety of shaft heights. While taller shaft height logically means greater water protection, that doesn't mean a knee height boot is the right choice for everyone. Low boots can be made of very durable and equally waterproof materials; they're just not meant for wading through stream beds. Pick your boots based on your intended use — the different boot heights will lend themselves to different uses. Low boots like the XTRATUF Deck Boots or the Huk Rogue Wave come into their own if you'll be using them on strolls through town when there's soggy (but not outright saturated) weather. Low boots obviously won't keep you as dry as taller boots, but they're generally more comfortable in more casual use cases.

Comfort

Our comfort tests are designed to replicate long days on your feet, so we wear each boot for hours on concrete and other hard surfaces. Ultimately, our tests let us know which boots to buy when you know you'll be wearing them for long days (the Bogs Workman and LL Bean Gore-Tex/Thinsulate, among others) and which boots you won't want to wear for more than an hour (sorry, Hunter Original Tall).

A boot's material plays a big role in overall comfort. Leather boots generally feel more comfortable because leather breathes better, tends to weigh less, and breaks in, molding to the shape of your feet. Leather's drawback is that it's less durable than a thick rubber boot and requires periodic oiling. And while you might think all “rubber boots” are equal, we've found a fair amount of variation after wearing so many different boots. Boots made with foamed neoprene uppers, like the Bogs Classic Ultra High and Bogs Classic II Tall, stretch and bend perfectly when walking on rough surfaces.

In contrast, boots with fully rubber uppers tend to buckle against the ankle when on the same terrain. There's also a difference in ankle comfort between stiffer rubber boots, like the Baffin Enduro, which bends in and pushes at the front of our ankles, and higher quality rubber-like the XTRATUF Legacy 15" material, which flexes smoothly across your feet. Finally, the LL Bean Gore-Tex/Thinsulate boots blend the flexibility and comfort of leather (on the top) and the waterproof durability of rubber (on the bottom), which works impressively well.

Insole construction is an important variable, as there's a lot of variation in insole sturdiness and thickness. Some boots have thick, cushioned insoles, such as the Bogs Classic II Tall and the Bogs Workman Soft Toe.

We're disappointed by other boots' flimsy offerings (come on, Hunter Original boots!), which means they don't fare well in the comfort ratings. The Kamik Forester is odd, featuring bulky removable liners without insoles (and can't fit aftermarket insoles). They're very nice and warm, but don't have much support underfoot.

For testing, we also wore rain boots during our general day-to-day lives. They come along as we go to grad school, work, walking the dog, grocery shopping, and voyaging into the mountains every few days. The Bogs Workman and Blundstone Original Chelsea lead the pack in comfort thanks to their snug fit around the ankles, which minimizes the sloppy fit we find in some other boots. Other particularly comfortable boots include the Bogs Classic Ultra and the LL Bean 8" Gore-Tex/Thinsulate.

Stiff-shafted rubber boots can be uncomfortable, and it helps to wear thick socks. Otherwise, they can cut into your shins as they buckle when you bend your ankles, like the Enduro, Dunlop Chesapeake, and the Hunter Original Tall.

Have you heard the saying "a pound on your feet equals six pounds on your back"? Lighter boots like the Blundstone Original Chelsea and XTRATUF 6" Ankle Deck Boot are more comfortable for long days but generally less protective, leading to an obvious trade-off. Ensure you're doing the calculations — do you need the extra protection? You'll feel less tired with a lighter option.

Traction

We generally don't wear rain boots when there's nice weather. Rain boots are for nasty conditions when comfy sneakers aren't enough. The best boots need to keep you up and on your feet, not slipping around and making a scene. Some boots feature deep-cut lugs that grab muck and snow easily, like the Bogs Workman, while others have less textured outsoles better suited for flat pavement and casual use, like the XTRATUF 6" Ankle or the CKWLXQY Deck boots.

We test our boots in various conditions: soaking wet grass, mossy wood, sucking mud, slippery asphalt, rocky riverbeds, (shallow) lake beds, and on ice and snow. The Baffin Enduro and Bogs Workman performed impressively well across most surfaces, thanks to their heavily lugged outsoles.

Casual boots are easy to recognize — they have shallow (or no) lugs on the outsoles and less flexible rubber. As a result, they do noticeably worse during traction tests. Our wet grass hill-running test lets us separate the slippery wheat from the grippy chaff. The low-scoring XTRATUF Ankle boots and Hunter Original boots made us look like beginner skiers (as we skidded awkwardly down hills), while grippier boots made us feel like we were wearing crampons.

Warmth

While this may not be a metric that some people consider when purchasing rain boots, it is worth mentioning. Some of the boots we tested are insulated, like the The Original Muck Boot Company Wetland; others, like the XTRATUF Legacy Series 15" are not. But most are made with some type of rubber, which doesn't naturally lend itself to 'breathing' and can lead to sweat feet. So don't always assume that a warmer boot is better. Choose insulation according to your climate.

Aside from insulation, another factor to consider is how the shaft of the boot fits around your calf. The Baffin Enduro is not insulated and has a more relaxed and open collar around the calf, which makes a notable difference in allowing excess heat to escape from the boot and keeping our feet cooler. The Bogs Workman Soft Toe and Bogs Classic II Tall are both insulated, but their neoprene shafts provide more breathability than pure rubber materials. The Hunter Original Tall or the XTRATUF Legacy Series 15" both have very snug-fitting collars and don't allow very much heat to dissipate out the top.

If you find yourself in an environment that is wet, hot, and humid, then deck boots, with their shorter shafts, will do better at keeping the moisture out without all the extra heat-trapping materials. The XTRATUF 6" Ankle Deck Boot and the CKWLXQY Deck boot both performed well in keeping our feet dry, but not overly hot in warmer temps.

The Blundstone Original Chelsea is the only full leather boot in this review and the naturally breathable material remains comfortable in a wide range of temperatures.

If you're looking to wear a pair of rain boots in outright cold and snowy conditions, all of the Bogs boots we tested are insulated and rated for temperatures ranging from -30°F to -60°F (seriously, that's their claim).

Wearability

For our latest round of testing, wearability encompasses all the small things that make us like a boot or not, and ultimately decide to pull it on before heading out for the day or opting for a different pair. Factors include style, ease of use, and whether we can kick them on and off easily.

For style, most boots go the practical route (most blatantly, the rubbery and pebble-patterned Baffin Enduro boots, which pair easily with our oil-stained Carhartt overalls). Some boots, especially the low leather options like the classy Blundstone Original Chelsea, pair easily with pretty much anything and are much more reasonable to wear out and about on a daily basis. The LL Bean 8" Gore-Tex/Thinsulate is another daily boot, and has a reputation for being part workboot and part style icon. Other boots, like the Hunter Original Tall, seem to be designed mostly as fashion statements.

When it comes to ease of use, the XTRATUF 15" boots are difficult to get on due to their flexible rubber and relatively narrow collar width, while our favorite Bogs Workman boots are simple - just step into them and walk out the door. We can do it hands-free most of the time. The Sperry Cold Bay Chukka has laces, which can make sure a boot feels snug, but they also catch debris, which dings their wearability score a bit.

We're also thinking about the little things - does the Baffin Enduro or Bogs Classic II Tall have a nice heel stud to help us kick it off? Yes. Do the Xtratuf Ankle boots and the Huk Rogue Wave outsoles catch and carry around pebbles and dirt, making a mess? Also yes.

Sizing + Fit

We are footwear nerds. We take sizing and fitting shoes extremely seriously, and we spend many hours choosing our shoes based on fit, from backpacking boots, climbing shoes, ski boots, trail running shoes, to approach shoes, and even casual shoes like flip flops. But the truth is that you probably don't need a super technical fit from your rain boots, so save your fit obsessing for the technical gear. But, if you are a footwear nerd too and want a more in-depth read on sizing and fit, head over to our How to Choose Rain Boots article.

Conclusion

If you spend a lot of time in wet and rainy weather, you owe it to yourself to get some rain boots. And if you haven't tried a pair on since the miserable days of clunky childhood galoshes, we promise that things have really turned around. There are some great boots out there; give one of these a try. And, if you need a great pair of shoes geared towards water sports, we've tested water shoes for men, too.