"Eskimo Boots"

One of the first things my mother said when I told her I had been accepted to Oswego State University was, “make sure you get some tough winter boots.” 


Being located on the shore of Lake Ontario, SUNY Oswego is notorious for their extreme winters including heavy snow, intense wind and bitter cold. Knowing my flimsy, yet very in, UGGS wouldn’t be able to handle the snow, my mother sent my boyfriend, Jake, and I to go searching for winter boots in July.

“Look for traction,” she said. “Make sure they’re warm.”

Obviously.

When we went to the shoe store, I was wearing shorts in the summer heat. I hadn’t thought of that, and now the boots were going to look funny against my naked skin. I’d just have to look at solely my feet…right.


It's usually not hard for me to fall in love with shoes. I believe I have a serious addiction when it comes to shoes and I have a full closet of shoes to prove it (plus some under the bed, some at my mother's house and some currently being shipped). The problem is that I'm a size 5 1/2 or a 6, and there is almost always my size on sale since not a lot of people have small feet. I also fall in love too easily, but that's another story... 

When Jake and I arrived at the shoe store I first tried on work boots with a rubber exterior. I liked them until Jake told me that his balding father had ones “sort of like that.”

I tried on puffy boots that reminded me of a winter jacket I had when I was a kid. My feet looked huge…keep in mind they’re size 6.

When I found my “Eskimo boots” I wasn’t immediately in love with them. I mean…fuzzy pom poms? But I felt the fluffy fur on the top of the boot and the thickness of the material on the side and they looked pretty durable. The traction on the bottom looked legit. I figured I’d at least try them on. You really never know until you try them on.

They came almost up to my knees. They fit snugly against my foot and up my leg. I noticed they also had a slight wedge to them as I strutted between the aisles of shoes.

“What do you think?” I asked Jake.

“I think the pom poms are sexy,” he said, smiling widely.

Can pom poms be sexy?

I looked at them in the awkwardly angled foot mirror that they always have in shoe stores. They looked like big, hairy feet. But man, were they warm. And sexy? Were they sexy? I don’t know if I’d say sexy, I thought as I looked at my reflection in the full length mirror. Short jean shorts, a yellow tank top and Eskimo boots. More like weather incompetent.

Now, as a junior at Oswego State who lives off campus, I am grateful for my warm Eskimo boots. As I walk up to my car and clear it off, my feet are sturdy on the icy driveway and my toes aren’t frozen. I can walk through the 3 feet of snow in our front yard to take out the trash and not be afraid I’ll leave a shoe behind. I no longer fear damp socks because although the bottom of the boots appear soaking wet, my feet are dry when I walk to class.

As I ride the bus to campus today, I am the last one on and so I have to stand. I grip onto the bar that I can’t reach. But I’m not worried. I’m wearing the Eskimo boots and my feet don’t budge. I watch a girl almost spill her coffee around a turn but I am steady against the bus’ shakiness.

My Eskimo boots have been the perfect winter boots to get me through the horrors of an Oswego winter. I have found them to be the perfect combination against wind, snow, ice, rain and wobbly buses. Plus they have fluffy pom poms that bounce when you walk.