Winter Safety Boots

The codes on the box are worth ten seconds of your time because they are not interchangeable. CI is a marking under EN ISO 20345 and it applies to the sole complex only: the sole is conditioned at minus 17C and the temperature measured inside the boot must not fall by more than 10C over thirty minutes. That is what stops cold striking up through a concrete yard or a chilled store floor. HI is the same test in the opposite direction, for heat. Neither code says anything at all about the lining, which is the part that holds your own warmth in. A boot can be CI rated and still feel cold if it is unlined, and a heavily lined boot with no CI will still let the floor win. For the outdoor and site ratings that sit alongside these, see our S3 safety boots.

Muck Boots leads the wellingtons here. The Grit S5 and the metatarsal Grit Met S5S are metal free throughout, with cold and heat insulation, ladder grip and a heat resistant outsole, and both are listed in men's and women's fits. Dunlop's Purofort Thermo+ is quoted down to minus 50C. Portwest runs the heaviest leather winter block, including the FD05 winter high boot, the matching winter rigger and the faux fur lined FD33 Steelite Kuma, alongside the FW95 and FD95 S5 wellingtons. Safety Jogger covers the cold with the Hekla Winter S7S, Vesuvio Winter S3S, Aras, Nordic, Alaska and Bestboot, plus the Winterbox bundles.

There is real depth past the volume lines. Amblers lines the Flare, Ignite, Quarry and the FS999 with Thinsulate behind a waterproof membrane. Apache builds cold insulation into the outsole of the Outback, Churchill, Stonehenge, Richmond and Mission. Helly Hansen Workwear brings the Oxford Winter Tall, Chelsea Evo 2 Winter Tall and Magni Evo Winter Tall BOA. Base Protection lines the T-Robust Mid and Top with PrimaLoft, Nora's Noratherm and Noramax Pro S5 insulate by trapping air in an expanded polyurethane sole, and Caterpillar's Everett S3 WP pairs a Thinsulate lining with cold insulation quoted to minus seventeen. If the job is wet before it is cold, start with our waterproof safety boots. For flooded or slurried ground, the safety wellingtons collection covers the S4 and S5 range. Sizing over a winter sock is covered in the size and fit guide.