There’s 3 types of Fall and Winter Boots for men that I love for this time of year – Dress, casual and chukka boots.

The reason I love boots for Fall/Winter is that they go so well with jeans, wool trousers and fall/winter suits. They also do a great job of keeping your feet warm and protected from the elements – while looking classy and more refined than a pair of hiking boots or something that’s just a straight utility item.

Now, if you live in an area with a good amount of snow or rain, then you should probably have specialty boots for the crazy days, too, but those are outside the scope of this article.

The difference between dress and casual boots

Dress boots are more formal and can be worn with a suit or wool trousers. They have a sleeker profile, usually leather or dainite soles, and are made out of shinier calf skin, as opposed to cow hide. Dress boots are like dress shoes with a shaft, basically.

Casual boots usually have more room in the toe box, the leather is usually a thicker cowhide that is more matte, and the soles usually have lugs on them. They look a little less dressy and sophisticated, which is why they look so great with jeans, but you can also still wear them with wool trousers.

My Requirements for a good Fall/Winter Boot

These items apply to all the types of boots – dress, casual and chukka boots:

1. A slim profile and not chunky

Timberlands (right) are the exact opposite of what I’m looking for in a good boot. You want a nice, rounded toe box with a slim profile as well as sole like the image below.

2. Plain, Cap Toe or Broguing

I like all 3 of them, but just like with my dress shoes, I’ll always prefer a plain or cap-toe, but broguing is also acceptable. Broguing is not really my preference because I think a lot of guys overdo it with the broguing, burnished toes, etc. Too much can easily look gaudy if you’ve got too much going on in your outfit.

3. Lugged, Dainite or Rubber soles

These will give great grip in any type of weather. A normal dress boot has smooth leather on the bottom and you will slip and slide like crazy in wet weather. If you’re not in a climate with rain/snow, then you can go with straight leather bottoms typically found on most dress boots, but I see no reason to do that when any rubber bottom aside from lugged will look very similar with the extra benefit of additional traction.

4. Be brown or black leather

Go with nice dark chocolate or walnut brown first, then get black if you don’t have them already. Brown is a great fall/winter color and is easier to wear with casual AND more formal outfits. But be careful about getting a really specific brown color, like oxblood. As I’ve said in my other shoe videos, it’s a great color but doesn’t compliment a lot of outfits, so get that color once you’ve got these basics down.

And please, whatever you do, don’t get those terrible boots that are already worn in. It’s much better for you to wear them in yourself and really personalize their look to your actual lifestyle.

5. NOT be Suede

For Fall and Winter boots, suede is the last material you should consider, unless you live in a dry climate like Southern California where it rains maybe 3 or 4 times a year. Otherwise, they’ll get screwed up very quickly with any amount of rain or snow. I don’t care how much scotch guard you use, nothing can stand up to that much abuse. So save the suede shoes for spring, please.

Can I wear boots with a suit?

Yes, but only when these 2 conditions are met:

You’re wearing a heavier wool or tweed suit.
For a visually heavy item like boots, you should understand fabric weights and pairing them with similar items. Even straight up dress boots can look odd with lighter weight wool suits. Make sure the wool is atlas 12oz thick. The easiest way to tell what a heavy wool suit feels like in person, is it should be as thick as a wool sweater (not as soft, though!)
Your pants are hemmed to have no break.
The hem of your pants will look sloppy and bunched at the ankle, otherwise. You can technically cuff the hem of your suit pants to do this, but if they’re super long, it’ll never look quite right. So I usually just get the pants hemmed to no break for this. But that means you can’t wear this suit with anything but boots now…unless you have your tailor let out the hem when the seasons change.