Best for…

Who this is for: People who are less concerned about slipping a shoe on and off quickly, but more interested in a shoe that can take abuse in a variety of wet and muddy conditions. These are also the de facto “stylish boot” for men.

Why it’s great: Duck boots are a style of outdoor footwear pioneered by L.L.Bean. They feature the rubber soles and lower half of a rain boot along with a leather upper that laces tight like on a traditional boot. Our favorite duck boot is the 8-inch unlined Bean Boot for men and women. L.L.Bean is quick to point out that its design is the original duck boot, but that’s not why it’s our pick. If you want a shoe styled like a duck boot, you can find dozens of options. If you want a boot that’s one of the most thoughtfully designed pieces of gear for being outdoors, this is the boot to choose.

Outdoor professionals often say that you should never carry anything with you that can’t perform at least two different tasks (ideally three). This shoe handles three things well: comfortable walking, dealing with mud, and tolerating wet weather. Our other picks can handle all that stuff in varying degrees but typically have a single condition they perform best in. This shoe was designed to handle all three of those problems equally and simultaneously.

The laced leather around the calf is responsible for a lot of that functionality. The leather lets your ankle move freely for walking (and driving), while the laces hug it close to your leg so you can pull your foot out of sucking mud without leaving your boot behind.

The bottom of the boot is cross-functional, too. It has a thicker heel than on most other boot types, so it will take longer to wear through, and the shallow, rounded tread is built for releasing debris; you can easily rinse it off, as well. And in the base of the shoe, these boots have a steel shank, a piece of metal in the sole that runs from the ball to the heel of the foot. This is a feature sometimes found in work boots, and it protects the foot from below and keeps the shoe from wearing out quickly.

The rubberized base of the boot shaft gives extra inches of waterproofing for walking through deep, curbside puddles, and the leather tongue is gusseted—attached on the inside of the boot on both sides—so the shoe remains waterproof for the entire height of the boot.

Style-wise, it’s difficult to design a duck boot that laces flat, but this one does okay. Something about how the separate rubber and leather pieces are sewn together often creates funny leather protrusions around the eyelets and causes the tongue to bunch up. Every other duck boot we looked at failed to master the flat lacing. Even when the problem was small, as on the Eddie Bauer Hunt Pac, once we saw it we couldn’t unsee it.

It’s hard to overstate the popularity of these shoes. The biggest publications in the world have pondered that exact phenomenon, and Popular Mechanics neatly sums it up in the title of its article, “The Never-Ending Greatness of L.L. Bean’s Boots.” The Atlantic does the same, explaining “Why L.L. Bean’s Boots Keep Selling Out.” Current fashion trends aside, anyone who owns a pair will likely tell you it’s because the boots last for decades, and because they’re happy to be able to support a company that still makes its boots in the USA (in Maine).

Flaws but not dealbreakers: The original Bean Boot is unlined, and we like that, since it keeps the shoe true to its nature as a multi-seasonal, versatile piece of outdoor kit. You can decide what kind of weather you want to use it in and choose the thickness of your socks accordingly. But if that’s not your thing, many other styles are available: You can get the boot flannel lined, shearling lined, Gore-Tex lined, or padded around the ankle.

The leather upper on this boot requires some breaking in, and so do the laces, which are coated and slippery to start out. But they do break in eventually.

Also, when you lace the upper tightly, sometimes it can create a sensation of your foot floating around slightly in the rubber bottom part. So depending on variables such as how your foot fits and how thick your socks are, you may experience a small amount of movement inside the boot, but we haven’t found the effect to be a nuisance.

Men’s sizes: 7 to 14

Men’s widths: narrow B, medium D, wide EE

Men’s colors: tan/brown, basil/black/orange, tan/teal/orange

Women’s sizes: 6 to 11

Women’s widths: narrow AA, medium B, wide D

Women’s colors: tan/brown, tan/navy, navy/light blue