MILITARY BOOTS

Combat boots are military boots designed to be worn by soldiers during actual combat or combat training as opposed to during parades and other ceremonial duties. Soldiers have worn boots in battle for much of recorded history; early specialised boots included the hobnail boots of the Roman legions.

Modern combat boots are designed to provide a combination of grip, ankle stability, and foot protection suitable to a rugged environment. They are normally made of hardened and/or chemically-treated leather and can be waterproof. Variations on the basic lace up combat boot have been designed for special types of troops (tanker boots, jump boots) and special environments (jungle boots, desert boots, cold weather boots). Recent combat boots are beginning to integrate kevlar and nomex within their side panels to provide better protection and ventilation for the skin of the soldiers who wear them.

Although combat boots have a reputation for being uncomfortable and even painful, this is no longer the case. The modern Infantry Combat Boot, in the U.S., incorporates new civilian boot technologies to good effect, including Gore-Tex waterproofing and heel/ankle support, making it highly wearable and effective.


Combat boots are also popular in the goth, punk, heavy metal, industrial, skinhead, and BDSM subcultures.

Jungle boots are a type of combat boot that is designed for use in jungle warfare or hot, wet and humid environments where a standard leather combat boot would be uncomfortable or unsuitable to wear due to these conditions. Jungle boots have two vent holes on the leather located on the inner side of the boot near the middle of the boot to aid in ventilation.

The most well-known type of jungle boot are the ones that the US Armed Forces issued to their personnel during the Vietnam War in which the boot's upper was a mixture of leather for the toe, heel and eyelets and cotton/nylon for the neck of the boot.

The jungle boots that were made for the US armed forces during the Vietnam War sported a direct molded rubber sole (in either a Vibram style tread or a Panama-style tread) which also has a stainless steel plate installed inside the boot's sole to protect the wearer from punji stake traps.

The US military jungle boot helped design the famed desert combat boot which many American soldiers wore during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2001 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. Despite the introduction of the desert boot at the time of Operation Desert Storm, many American military personnel were still issued jungle boots because there were not enough desert boots to issue to all the personnel in the Middle East at the time.

Altama Footwear and Wellco Footwear are two American combat boot companies who manufacture the US military jungle boot in both its original Vietnam War configuration with the green cotton/nylon upper and conventional eyelets and in an updated version with a black cotton/nylon/Cordura upper and a hook and eyelet lacing system as well as the desert boot of Desert Storm, Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom fame.

As of 2005, the United States Marine Corps has removed the old black jungle boots from front-line military service and replaced them with a new combat boot called the Jungle Desert Boot after the US Marines adopted the new MARPAT digital camouflage uniforms in 2002 as well as the US Marines being called in to fight in deserts in recent years.