5 Ways Gaiters Can Help You Put Your Best Foot Forward
We believe gaiters are an essential piece of outdoor equipment. Here’s why.
We’ve all been there. You’re feeling great, excited to be in the middle of your latest outdoor adventure when all of the sudden there’s a disturbance in the force—a rock has entered your shoe! Now the mental debate begins: Do you interrupt your flow by taking the time to stop, untie your laces and dump out your shoe, or do you deal with the discomfort and try to embrace the rock until it becomes a part of you? Either way, your experience has been compromised.
Our choice? Avoid the situation entirely by wearing a Kahtoola gaiter.
We love gaiters—rain or shine, hot or cold, sand or snow—and we’re convinced they’re the essential outdoor tool you didn’t know you were missing. Not sure? Let’s take a look at five indispensable ways gaiters can help you stay comfortable and maintain your flow.
1. Leave it all on the trail
Nothing puts a damper on a hike like a rock in your shoe—or seeds, grass, snow, sand…you get the point. Nobody wants to be the one that makes the group wait while you untie your boot, take it off and dispose of the intruder. But leaving it there really isn’t an option either. At best, the trespasser will make your hike or run uncomfortable, but it can also do damage to your feet and cause injury.
A pair of properly fitted gaiters lets you leave it all on the trail and keep moving by closing the gap between your ankles and your footwear.
They provide a snug fit around your boots or shoes so you don’t have to worry about anything unwanted making its way in and interrupting your flow!
2. Chart your own course
Once you’re free from worrying that debris might find its way into your boot or shoe, you’re able to travel freely, on the trail or off. We don’t advocate going off-trail in sensitive areas, but it’s inevitable for a lot of activities—scrambling, canyoneering and mountaineering come to mind—and you don’t want to limit yourself. To make the most of your time outdoors, you want to be able to go wherever the terrain takes you.
A durable, well-designed, lightweight pair of gaiters lets you chart your own course by stepping freely and confidently, no matter where your adventure leads.
Enjoy the freedom of walking or running through sand, snow, dry grass and just about any other type of terrain you might come across. After all, isn’t that what being outside is all about!
3. You’re free to choose
With the freedom to go just about anywhere, wouldn’t it be nice to freely choose your footwear as well? Different styles of footwear offer different levels of comfort and support. But they also all offer different levels of protection when it comes to keeping dust and debris out.
Gaiters allow you to wear whatever footwear you want when you want.
Let that quiver of activity-specific footwear you’ve been collecting shine. Match a pair of gaiters with any type of shoe or boot—from ultralight trail runners all the way up to stiff mountaineering boots—and seal them off so you can let the activity dictate your footwear, not what’s on or around the trail.
4. Dry feet are happy feet
Wet feet can quickly spoil an otherwise perfect outdoor adventure. And that doesn’t always mean rain. Water can make its way into your boots or shoes from a lot of different sources, and most of the time it’s unwanted!
A pair of waterproof breathable gaiters can help keep your feet dry—rain or shine.
The openings around your laces and ankles are weak points where moisture can seep in—not to mention water also loves to wick down socks. Gaiters seal off those openings and keep water out, which is especially nice on those warm, rainy days when you want to wear shorts!
They can also help keep your feet from getting soaked when there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Dawn patrol often means hiking through vegetation that’s wet from an overnight rain or covered in morning dew. Why not throw on a pair of waterproof, breathable gaiters and start your day off on the right foot, with dry feet?
5. Enjoy the fringe benefits
Repelling debris, giving you the freedom to choose your own adventure footwear and allowing you to travel further, faster. Any one of these reasons should put gaiters squarely at the top of your essential gear list for any outing. But just to sweeten the deal, here’s a couple more:
A properly fitted pair of gaiters keeps you upright and moving forward by keeping your laces in check.
Stray, untied laces can be a tripping hazard, and so can tied laces that catch on the lace hooks of the opposite boot. Keep them where they belong!
In cold weather, gaiters will help keep your ankles and calves warm.
When the weather turns cold, any bit of extra protection can help, especially when you’re wearing low-cut footwear. Nobody wants to get caught with frozen ankles far from home!
Not all gaiters are created equal
Kahtoola gaiters are designed and built to take a beating and keep you comfortable, so you can make the most of every outdoor experience. They’re available in a range of sizes, materials, designs and heights. Whether you’re a trail runner, a mountaineer, or heading out to walk the dog, we have a model to fit any adventure and weather conditions. Check out our lineup, and join us in singing the praises of one of the unsung heroes of outdoor adventure.
We’re certain that once you try gaiters for the first time, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without them!