Willy's Wet Wellies — William Charleton

There aren’t too many dudes out there who wear rain boots these days. Especially in the city. I don’t know why, they’re so practical. They protect not only your feet, but your pants too! Occasionally I see guys where the low hunter rain boots. It’s better than nothing.

I bought my first pair of hunters in 2006 and at the time was one of the only people I knew that had them, which was pretty neat. Then they blew up and every legging-wearing yoga-attending girl from 18-35 got a pair. Then my dad got a pair. We both had the basic green ones with navy fleece liners.

Fast forward to my move to Boston. Shortly after arriving here with my hunters, they wore out. The tread wore so thin that several leaks developed. Time to move on.

Me and my first Range Rover. Photo by Alyse Dufour

In researching for this article, I noticed that since my initial purchase, the brand line up has changed quite a bit. At the time, I wanted the Men’s Royal Hunter. Handmade, vibram sole, leather lined legs and fleece lined feetsies. Sounds ideal, right? As I recall, they were pushing $400 and I couldn’t find any in the US in my size.

As you can see, these STILL have pretty beefy tread. The leather legs have only gotten softer. They’re still waterproof. I couldn’t really ask for more.

Do any of you remember The Tannery on Boylston between Arlington and Berkeley? The original Back Bay Tannery. It was more of an outlet. Everything was always on sale. I think for the entire time they were open, Hunters were buy one get one half off. For the pair, not individual boots. It was quite a place. Some of the best deals around, and you could haggle.

Now let me tie those two previous paragraphs together. Without any intention of getting new boots, I walked through the Tannery. And what did I find. They had a single pair of men’s Royal Hunters. And in my size. Well, half a size too small, but not enough to matter. Especially for $99. Not bad, considering they’re still going strong 8 years later.

All in all, I think they’re extremely useful and comfortable. On top of that, I think they usually look pretty good too!