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UX Improvements to the Muck Boot

…thanks to input by a group of female farmers

By Rain Noe - June 6

in Footwear

As I'm on a farm, muck boots are an indispensable daily-use object for me. They're simple, cheap and effective. But they have their pain points.

The first is that the material is always super stiff. The ankles don't bend well, making squatting and kneeling difficult. The stiffness also means you cannot easily and safely drive with them; the top lip of the boot can get wedged on the front of your seat, effectively locking your foot onto the pedal.

Secondly, getting them off can be a chore; you don't want to grab the bottom since that's the part covered in muck, so you kind of grab the top lip with both hands and shimmy your foot to release it.

Thirdly, they need to be worn with pants that go over them, not into them. I wear rubber coveralls. If you wear pants that go into the boot, eventually a load of liquid (or worse) makes its way inside the boot, where it pools at the bottom, having no place to go. Now you're working with soaked feet, and this defeats the purpose of wearing the boot in the first place.

Japanese footwear manufacturer Moonstar has addressed these, with the help of some female farmers. Fukuoka Prefecture organized an Agricultural Women's Project where these farmers were able to work directly with manufacturers to improve their products. The result is this Realiser muck boot, which features softer material in the body, and can of course be worn by both sexes.

I'll provide a rough translation of the captions:

"Comfortable even for squatting work."

"Easy to remove: Step on this part with the opposite foot."

"Gaiter keeps out dirt and other materials."

"Folds compactly and is convenient to carry."

The Realisers run ¥6,380, or USD $41, which is ten bucks more than the boots I get from Walmart. If these were distributed here, I'd gladly pay it.

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Stan Spangenberg

5 months ago

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@Reynold Dodson. That's a clever thought. But there is also a clever solution for that. Don't step completely out off the first boot. Only raise your ankle to free your foot a bit for a quick release after raising the second foot in the other boot. That works fine for me. ;-)

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Dee An

5 months ago

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Hunter brand Wellington boots (or 'wellies' as we call them in the UK where this style originated) have a similar nub above the heel for ease of removal.
They're a pricey brand that play upon their association with the land-owning British aristocracy, and with pop stars (Glastonbury music festival is notoriously often a rain soaked mud bath).
In New Zealand, the style is called a gum boot. From Fred Dagg's 'Gum Boot Song: "They keep the water out / And the smells in!"
Nylon gaiters aren't a new feature on wellies, either.

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Michael Ayukawa

5 months ago

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I've adopted the neoprene topped boots, simply because they are more flexible on the top. But they are not without issues. The sealing tape I have had to fix and tears in the neoprene I've patched (with bike tube patches). Gives them a nice touch, IMO. I suspect they may cost more to purchase new but mine were bought used to harvest seaweed from the ocean coast off Vancouver Island.

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Reynold Dodson

5 months ago

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So the problem with the "Easy to remove..." tab is that it works to help you take off the first boot. But to take off the second boot, you have to step on the mucky tab with your clean sock. It's better than nothing, but needs more think.

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- Adam Nunn
  
  Reynold Dodson
  
  5 months ago
  
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  I don't know if you ever wear these type of boots, but what I usually do is get one boot halfway off, getting my heel past the ankle, then take the other boot off, then shake off the first boot the rest of the way. Is this not the usual way?
  
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  - Reynold Dodson
    
    Adam Nunn
    
    5 months ago
    
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    I usually stand on the heel of one boot with the toe of the other, get that boot off. Then I try to reverse the operation, realize my mistake, sit on the floor and get the second boot off with my hands, the go the sink and wash the muck off my hands. Your method seems better.
    
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  - Robin Vickery
    
    Adam Nunn
    
    5 months ago
    
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    Yep. Or if you live in your wellies like some of us, make (or buy if you're fancy) a boot jack. A short offcut of plank with a notch cut in one end and a small block of wood nailed to the bottom about a third of the way along. Stand on it with one foot and use the notch to pull the other boot off.
    
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