For the little feet – light and warm winter shoes

On the photo: Winter toddler shoes by Bogs, Organic Boiled Wool Winter Hat by Pickapooh, Organic Wool Fleece Mittens

Update:

Since sharing this post we came across much better brand for kids winter shoes. I no longer recommend Bogs if you plan to spend time outdoors with your little one. Instead I highly recommend Bisgaard TEXT boot. You can also look into Viking Footwear. We have not used them yet, but as it is a Norwegian brand I would expect them to be proper winter shoes mean to keep kids feet warm and be lightweight so kids can play outside.

I wanted to write a quick post to share this great find for toddler’s winter shoes. I was looking for shoes that would be comfortable, lightweight, water proof and warm. Surprisingly, it was not an easy task to find such shoes. While it seem to be easy to find warm and comfy adult winter boots, when it came to toddler shoes I could only find what my friend referred to as ‘moon shoes’ – the extremely heavy, chunky and honestly just hideous looking boots. We tried a pair from Sorel and my little son could barely drag his feet in those boots and on top of that his little feet were cool to the touch even after a brief walk. The shoes seemed to even discourage him from his going outside.

I nearly gave up in my search and was getting ready to order a pair of nice winter shoes all the way from Finland through a friend, when I run across Bogs!

What we love about them

  • They are light as a feather! The little legs are not weighted down in these shoes whatsoever!
  • Easy on, easy off!
  • Waterproof. While Amazon has mixed user reviews on waterproofing of these shoes so far we haven’t had any issues. Just yesterday we walked through wet snow and puddles on his walk and came home with dry and warm feet!
  • They’ve been keeping our feet warm. Bogs rate them for 14F/-10C, but I noticed at 14F/-10C my boys feet were still getting cold even in warm socks. So, I would rate them be ok for right around freezing point. They have a nice soft insulating materials on the inside, but we also do use a nice warm sock when Ale wears these shoes.

  • And they have cute children prints! Ale loves woodland animals, so he was instantly very excited about trying them on when the shoes arrived! They offer different prints and colors as well.

According to Bogs they are machine washable – I have not yet tried that and have seen some Amazon reviewers commenting that shoes lost water-proofing after being washed. So, I don’t think that we’ll try that, just to be safe. But all and all, these shoes have been great for us and my child loves going outside again!

P.S. Also, while on the subject of winter clothes, I wanted to recommend this incredibly soft, warm and adorable hat form Pickapooh, available at out all time favorite Little Sprice Organics.

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2 thoughts on “For the little feet – light and warm winter shoes

  1. Thank you for your wonderful blog! Your joy and simplification of living sustainably has been so refreshing in my research for sustainable non-toxic baby items. For winter boots, we live in a very cold climate and our daughter is just learning to walk and loves to be outside, so we are looking for light but very warm footwear for her. I saw you used Bogs; are they non-toxic?
    For something warmer, I came across this brand: https://stonz.com/
    Do you have thoughts on this brand?

    Thanks so much!

    Best Regards,
    Elizabeth

    1. Hello Elizabeth, thank you for your kind words. 🙂 I wish I had more time to share more great kids items, as over the years I have gradually discovered more and more. 🙂 About the shoes, I should probably amend the post on BOGS shoes that I no longer recommend them as true winter shoes. As a general rule, I have found that if you want good quality kids clothes or footwear and especially winter gear then seeking out European brands is the best way to go. For the past 2 winters we have been loving Bisgaard TEX boot. Those are truly amazing for winter. I have a blog post on those shoes where you can see more photos. We have spent 2 winters with both boys in these shoes playing outside for hours 4 days a week, as both boys attend a forest school. And Bisgaard shoes have been just superb in every way. If you are looking for a non-leather shoes I recently came across VIKING FOOTWEARE brand, which is Norwegian. We have not tried them yet, as we are quite happy with Bisgaard brand,, but they look like real winter shoes.

      As far as non-toxic — Bogs are most likely treated with something for waterproofing. Also, I noticed that unlike European brands the brands in US are less environmentally conscious and what they use for waterproofing is more harmful for the environment.

      And about the Stonz brand — I don’t have any experience with it. If your baby isn’t walking yet then may be their booties would be OK with some nice thick wool socks. But their Trek or Scout models have those heavy stiff rubber bottoms that make it very difficult for kids to run, climb and play in. So I would advise against them. We had a similar design from SOREL brand and it was sad to see my then 2 year old son trying to walk or run while wearing them. It looked like he had heavy weights tied to his feet.

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