If you have ever gone hiking, mountaineering, snowshoeing, or just exploring the outdoors, you know how dirt, mud, and snow can get into your boots and cause discomfort. This is where boot gaiters can help.
Why Use Boot Gaiters?
Boot gaiters are a special type of clothing designed to protect the lower leg area from puncture, snow, water, animal bites, and other such threats. They can be made of many types of tear-resistant and pierce resistant materials such as leather or polyester. Good boot gaiters should be able to prevent the elements from getting inside your boots or under your pant legs and onto the skin.
Working or playing outdoors will eventually lead you to be poked and stabbed by sticks, or splashed from bacteria-filled mud or pond water. Worse, you could receive a nasty surprise by a small animal such as a snake or a diseased varmint. Boot gaiters exist to protect your lower legs and ankles from these threats. They are great to wear if you plan on doing lots of hiking, hunting, or tree brush clearing.
Boot Gaiters Versus Chaps
Chaps are pieces of clothing that cover the lower legs and go up to the lower waist area. They act as extra protection for the leg area over pants and are great for outdoor jobs that put the wearer at risk of injury from skin punctures.
Boot gaiters cover up to the knees or lower knee areas and go over the top of the boots down to the arches. They are intended as extra protection and warmth for the lower legs to protect from brush, mud, water, snow, and snake bites.
Snake Gaiters are also designed for extra protection from the elements, but most importantly from snake bites.
Boot gaiters, chaps, and snake gaiters all perform similar functions and are generally made of similar materials.
Boot Gaiters History
It’s difficult to determine the exact invention of boot gaiters, but they likely go back a long time and were referred to by different names in different languages. In recent times, boot gaiters could be found in armies dating back to WW1 and WW2.
Native American tribesmen wore fashionable buckskin leggings that went up to the mid-thigh region to protect them while walking and traveling through brush for hunting or just traveling.
Horseback riders were known in the 1800s to wear riding gaiters to protect them from chapped legs and injury while on horseback. These are more akin to large boots and are still used today.
Historically, boot gaiters were made with natural animal fibers such as wool, leather, and other skins. Boot gaiters have been used to protect hunters of all stripes from injury while pursuing animals in the brush.
Boot Gaiters Fashion
Boot gaiters can be quite fashionable and include patterns and attached ornaments. They can go with an overall garment scheme or uniform, such as in the case of professional horse riders. Cowboys and wranglers wear leather chaps with artful designs meant to show style along with offering protection.
