Luckily, winter boot manufacturers - and vendors have brought in trendier styles in recent years. When it comes to the cold, you don't need to suffer for fashion.
Here are my picks for where to buy winter boots in Toronto.
Sporting Life
Toronto's original sporting-goods store, located north of Yonge and Eglinton, naturally comes well-stocked with performance-oriented snow boots. Men and women can choose from a dozen brands, with styles generally focused on the chunky, plasticized and/or fur-topped (one notable exception: these fancy-pants apres-ski boots from ski brand Rossignol).
Get Outside
Sprawling over two storefronts, this Queen West favourite has plenty of space for seasonal footwear (they pack away the sneakers come winer). Their boot offerings focus on trendy yet practical brands for men and women, including a few relative rarities like Palladium, Native, and Bogs. The tradeoff for all that selection: You'll likely pay the full MSRP.
Heel Boy
Come wintertime, this pair of stores (one on West Queen West, the other in the Distillery) swaps out some of their sandals and heels from cool international brands for boots from the likes of Rudsak and Dubarry of Ireland.
Gravitypope
This Ossington store, a western-Canadian import, stocks every cool shoe brand under the sun (and deals equally in Converse and Comme Des Garcons). When it comes to winter, there's performancewear from UGG, Patagonia, Kodiak, Manitobah, and Woolrich. If it's not in store, it's most definitely on their website.
Australian Boot Company
Maybe you're the type to buy one pair of boots and kick the daylights out of them year-round. Your first and only stop should be the Australian Boot Company, where you can pick up a pair of wear-everywhere Blundstone boots. If you want something more specialized, they offer winterized models with fleece insoles, along with a selection of rugged UGGs (and the sheepskin ones, but don't buy those).
Mountain Equipment Co-Op
Outdoorsy types flock to MEC on King West for their Nalgene bottles and Gore-Tex everything; their boot offerings lean more toward hiking than snowy weather, but with pairs from Merrell, Keen and Pajar, you'll find something to keep the snow out (plus, while you're there, their helpful staff will be able to sell you all the self-heating socks and merino long johns you could need).
Atmosphere
Formerly known as Coast Mountain Sports, this outdoorsy chain (part of the Sport Chek family of stores) shares MEC and Sporting Life's focus on hitting backwoods and trails (as opposed to the city streets, which I would argue are equally treacherous). That big-chain status means the possibility of markdowns on that performance-oriented footwear, including pairs from Merrell and Patagonia.
SAIL
This Quebec-based outdoor-goods chain, with locations in Etobicoke and Vaughan, stocks a range of brands, from the entry-level to the high-tech, including some unusual ones like Baffin and Quebecois line Saute-Mouton.
Imelda
This adorable boutique on Roncy is a particular weakness of west-end accessory lovers - particularly those whose tastes run to the practical-yet-funky (think Miz Mooz and Clarks). If winter weather is a weakness in your shoe arsenal, their on-trend styles from Kodiak, Native, Sorel and Bogs will have you covered.
Hudson's Bay (Queen St.)
Yeah, it's a department store, but we'd be remiss to not mention the shoe floor at the Bay's Eaton Centre flagship, which bills itself as the largest shoe section in all of Canada. Naturally, their selection of both heavy-duty and fashion brands (including some upscale runoff from the Room upstairs) is unmatched - as are their shoe sales.
See also:
The Best Shoe Stores in Toronto
The top 8 stores to buy hiking boots in Toronto
The top 10 places to buy a cheap winter coat in Toronto
Did I miss any? Leave your favourite stores for winter boots in the comments.
Photo by Kyra Savolainen in the blogTO Flickr pool.
by Natalia Manzocco via blogTO
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