The Outdoor Adventure Giving you tips, tricks & recommendations to help make adventuring in the Outdoors fun, safe & exciting for you and your kids.
Canada gets cold in winter, so cold, that the kids complained when out snowshoeing. What’s a family to do? We bought the kids new Columbia Bugaboot Plus Kids boots. With a -32 C rating, these boots have been an excellent purchase. They’ve proved themselves through two kids and many cold adventures. Were they worth the investment? Definitely.
Features
- Omni-Heat thermal reflective, insulated
- Waterproof suede and PU coated leather
- Waterproof seam sealed
- 200 grams insulation rated -25F/-32C
- Molded EVA with nylex cover
- Injection molded rubber shell/outsole
- Weight: size 1, ½ pair = 14.6 oz/413.9g
- MSRP: $70 USD (I paid $32 new)
Testing
Winters snowshoeing, sledding, hiking and doing the paper route. These have hit 20 below (Celsius) on more than one occasion. After two years and two winters in the great white north that is Canada, I can’t think of much more we could put them through.
What do we think?
200 grams of insulation combined with the omni-heat reflection is fantastic. If you want to get outdoors in cold weather your kids need good footwear. Kids don’t complain until their feet are already icy, and that’s a risk. When we switched from lower quality insulated boots to these the winter experience became fun for everyone. Seriously, fun. We didn’t have to cut trips short, or sit there massaging frosty toes in the cold. We were only limited by the energy they had.
The seam sealed, waterproof suede still looks good after 2 winters of use. We expect to pass these on to Jr. Adventurer #3 next year.
The injection molded rubber performs well in cold weather meaning it stays pliable and allows great traction on ice and hard ground.
Conclusion
What’s more to say? These Columbia Bugaboot Plus boots are a fantastic investment for an outdoors family. They’re not cheap, but they’re worth it for two reasons:
- The Quality – You won’t have to replace them as often as low-quality boots
- The Performance – They keep the kids’ feet toasty warm, enabling more outside time in cold weather
If you want to get outdoors in winter and need some new boots for the kids, check them out. We have the Bugaboot Plus II, and will definitely be taking a list at the Bugaboot Plus III for next year.
Have you bought Columbia kids’ boots before? What did you think?
