What Are the Best Winter Shoes (That Aren’t Boots) for Women?

Under $100

Steve Madden’s Lando may come with better support than the G.H. Bass Weejun (which everyone from Chloë Sevigny to Gwyneth Paltrow has) — at least according to Jess Focht, who writes the newsletter A Novel Idea. “As someone with bigger feet who needs real support, comfort isn’t optional,” she explains. In wintertime, these can handle miles. Focht would never wear them in very serious snow conditions but did when the ground was lightly dusted this winter, and they stood up to the slippery conditions just fine.

Having gone to college in New England, Oset Babür-Winter, founder of Prix Fixe, will wear a boat shoe in the dead of winter. These have experienced light snow, sub-30 degree temperatures, and even heavily salted streets. Plus, “even when I was nine months pregnant and very few of my other shoes fit (like even my Birkenstocks were tight), I was able to get these on,” she adds. While they’re not especially grippy, “the rubber sole does make it so they’re not super-slippery the way a loafer with a leather sole would be,” she says. After little over a year of wear, “I would say they look older than they actually are.” But that means she’s “less worried about scuffing or water damage; they look worn-in already, which is kind of the whole point, you know?”

“On the very rare chance I’m not wearing one of my 1,000 pairs of boots in the winter, I wear sneakers with thick wool socks,” says the Weird Real’s Alisha Bansal. “You absolutely cannot forget the wool socks.” Lately, those sneakers have been the Asics Gel-Nunobikis. They’re ideal for when it’s a little slippery after a rain- or snowstorm (but not when it’s actively raining or snowing). “I am fine on slippery subway steps, which I cannot say for all my boots,” she tells me.

Living in Duluth, Minnesota, “where anything above 30 degrees is considered balmy,” Noihsaf Bazaar’s Kate Lindello, when she’s not in a Rachel Comey Barla, will often be in Vans. “They’ve already seen some below-zero days this winter, mostly when I’m dropping my kid off at school,” she says. “I’ll occasionally do a lunch walk in them if I forget my running shoes.” Her office is right by the Lakewalk off Lake Superior: “They clear the Lakewalk easily, and I’ve walked miles in Vans in every season.” Her oldest pair is about eight years old (for reference, hers average around three years). It should be noted that “below 30 degrees, my toes will eventually get cold, but since your feet can move in Vans, the circulation helps keep them warmer,” she adds.

Converse Chuck Taylors date back to 1917, and since then, we have seen the original high-top, low-top, and this version, the All-Star Lift. Product strategist Hannah Conway’s first pair endured “weekly, if not daily wear” for two winters before the sole wore through. Also important, they “cover your ankles to conserve necessary warmth.” They even survived one New Year’s Eve “out in slushy Montreal involving $5 cocktails.” Just beware: They don’t have as much traction as other shoes on this list. (Avoid black ice, as is always necessary.)

Under $200

Julia Harrison, a commerce writer at Architectural Digest, imagines “walking down to a wind-whipped dock with some kind of spaniel at my heel, newspaper in hand, a brimming cup of black coffee in a camping mug.” It’s her perfect life, and this is the perfect shoe for it. “You can wear these all day without blisters, without the slippage that comes with so many clog or mule types,” she says. “I’ve not once thought about their traction, which makes me suspect it’s fine.” They’ve been on plenty of coffee runs in second-day slush, with a “noticeable salt wash on the suede around the sole, but that doesn’t bother me. I like my things to feel almost disastrously lived in,” she says. At her chicest, she wears them with Comme Si cashmere socks or L.L.Bean merino-wool ones “that slump in such a Maine way.”

Nearly every day from October to May (at least since November 2024), Nancy Rosenbloom, founder of Together Showroom, wears her Kassl x Tretorn Eefjes. “Where I live, in northern Vermont, the weather from October to May sees the most highs and lows you can imagine,” she says. “We will go from a bitter minus-15 degrees to a slushy 45 degrees within days and everything in between. These are indestructible in all scenarios.” (And no wet feet after walking in a few inches of snow.) They’re easy to slip on when she’s carrying a load of wood for a fire or after a long ski day. “I’ve never banana-peeled in them, nor am I nervous that I would,” she adds.

This is the third winter Carrie Courogen, author of Miss May Does Not Exist, will be wearing Weejuns mary janes. “Once it starts getting cold, I almost exclusively dress like Meg Ryan in You’ve Got Mail, and these shoes tie every look together,” she says. Initially a replacement for her Sam Edelman Loraine loafers, they have the well-crafted construction of a G.H. Bass Weejun, she says. Because they’re made of a stiffer leather, they need a fair bit of breaking in, and Courogen recommends “scuffing up the soles a bit” to prevent slipping. She relies on them to go out in “shitty weather” (if she can’t wear, say, wellies). “They withstand the ever-present salt on the streets as long as I regularly clean, condition, and waterproof them,” she says. “They’ve withstood getting fairly wet — caught in a sudden downpour, misjudged the depth of a slush pile — on numerous occasions.”

For every holiday event our writer Dominique Pariso attended last year (the New York office holiday party, a cookie-decorating party, a Christmas dinner party, and Christmas Day with her family), the UGG Zoras served as her guest. Someone even said they looked like “something Mrs. Claus would wear — in a good way.” (No one believes they’re UGGs, either.) “Would I wear them in serious snow, sleet, or rain? Probably not,” she tells me. (They did see flurries on the same night as the office party.) But they’re just fine outside, and “inside they offer a little more support than you’d get from a regular house slipper, which I need because I have terrible feet.” (Meaning “collapsed arches, a bum ankle, and plantar fasciitis.”)

Editor’s note: A cheaper suede version of the Zora is available at Dillard’s.

“About 12 years ago marks the one and only time I’ve ever wanted a pair of UGGs (ahem, the Classic II’s) so badly it brought me to tears,” says our updates coordinator, Najwa Jamal. But she came close again when she laid eyes on UGG’s Elea. (Largely thanks to its resemblance to The Row’s Hudsons, which are $1,500.) These are the least UGG-looking UGGs, and the only type of UGG she would wear now. “They’ve become such a second skin through typical dry city chills,” she says. It helps that the trademark UGG shearling keeps her feet warm even in sub-20-degree temperatures. She says she was “pleasantly surprised that they survived walking through the aftermath of the city’s latest batch of snow, which typically turns into a pile of gray sludge, with nary a salt or water stain on their outermost edges.” And while Jamal wouldn’t recommend “wearing them during the thick of a snow- or rainstorm, proceed with caution and best judgment in the days afterward.”

Over $200

“Excluding snowy and icy days, I wear these almost every day during the winter,” says Sandy Sanchez, copywriter and Small Pleasures newsletter writer, adding that “rainy days, post-snow days, and just regular cold days” are all fair game. It’ll be their third winter this year. Sanchez had them resoled recently to make them a bit grippier. She says it “helped tremendously when there’s a random icy part on the sidewalk.”

Having grown up in Minnesota (where winter lasts almost half a year), Anderson considers herself “an expert in functional (but cute) winter gear.” She packed these for a two-week trip back home. They’ve been through a “full-on Minnesotan blizzard” now. “I was going to see a play in Minneapolis, couldn’t find parking, and suddenly I’m walking through eight-inch snowdrifts and tons of fresh ice,” she says. “I totally thought it would be their final performance.” But that’s not all they’ve survived this winter: A few Saturdays ago, Anderson did a solid five miles of gallery-hopping (which involved subway stairs and slick sidewalks) in them. “And my feet did not complain once,” she says.

For virtually a year, Saman Amel’s City Mocs were on Krooss’s mind: “One of the things that drew me to them was their true-rubber sole. Obviously, having more grip than a leather-soled shoe is helpful, but I also find having a thicker separation between my foot and the sidewalk means I can wear them during colder weather as well.” She finally bought a pair six months ago on a work trip to Stockholm and has worn them nearly every day since. “I’ll sometimes wear them so many days in a row that I’ll have to actively remind myself I own other shoes,” she says. Because they’re suede, it “does mean I need to be more thoughtful about taking them out in wet weather,” she adds. Make sure to use a suede protector on them, as she did.

Editor’s note: The brand lists prices in euros, so this is an approximation to dollars.

When Lizzie Noonan, a marketing consultant, saw a few Frenchmen trying on Klemans through a store window while she was walking around the Marais, she couldn’t help getting her husband a pair: “It’s not uncommon that I buy him things I actually want, so naturally I spent the rest of the trip wanting them for myself.” (Kleman, as she learned, was founded by René Cléon, who was a shoemaker before joining the army in WWII and was taken as a prisoner of war at the Battle of France. He started the business in 1945.) On the last day of vacation, she went back for the brand’s derbies. That was over a year ago, and since then she has found they hold up well rain or shine. A few weeks ago, “by some miracle, the suede completely absorbed the rain in my mad dash from the subway to dinner at Roman’s,” she says. “The day after, you couldn’t tell they had gone for a little swim.” (Maybe it also helped that they have strong traction. The words shock absorber are on the sole, she points out.)

Editor’s note: The brand lists prices in euros, so this is an approximation to dollars.

“Controversial opinion: I appreciate that my feet can breathe a little when I am super–bundled up with a heavy overcoat and scarf,” says artist Melly Wirtes. She has worn both mesh Le Monde Beryls (admittedly a bit of a wild card) and the brand’s Claudia Slippers this winter in New York. “Though that really means walking my dog on salted sidewalks,” she says. “I’m not so much for extreme outdoor off-roading.” (She wears the mary janes with tights or silk socks, and leg warmers with the slippers.) Because Wirtes first liked the mary janes, she made it a point to go to Le Monde Beryl’s pop-up (where she bought the slippers) in Paris this summer. “I learned from the shop attendant that there is a noticeable size difference between the styles that are lined versus those unlined,” she says. “I usually wear a 41 but opted for a 42 here.”