Columbia Bugaboot Review

by Kevin_Fonger · Published December 10, 2012 , 8:05 pm · Updated March 7, 2023 , 8:30 am

Active Gear Review is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

As winter starts to set in into much of the country, it’s time for a lot of us to break out the warmer clothes and boots. If you happen to be in the market for a pair of winter boots, this is a good review to pay attention to as we will be talking about the ins and outs of the Columbia Bugaboot Boots.

Sitting still is not one of my best qualities, so when it gets cold out, I typically don’t go inside and hibernate. I personally love all 4 seasons of the year and in Colorado, we get to experience all 4 seasons, especially winter. While the temperatures have been warm and snow has been non existent for much of the country, we are finally getting some snow and cold weather to do a little winter gear testing.

The Columbia Bugaboot is a cold weather boot that can handle both snow, slush, and cold. The outside of this boot is lined with a classic pigskin leather than does a great job when it comes to resisting the elements. Pigskin leather also does a great job when it comes to the durability of a boot. The more you wear the boot, the leather starts to soften up providing a more personalized fit.

Along the bottom of the Bugaboot covering the foot is a more smooth treated leather that is meant to handle the day to day snow and slush. There is also an added layer of rubber on top of this leather for added protection. From the middle of the foot and up, there is a suede leather that can fight off the elements, but it does better in the looks category. For the lacing system, Columbia brings it back to the old school with red laces and metal eyelets. This is more of a fashion element, but red laces and all, you get a nice snug fit around the ankle and foot with this boot. For some, you will notice a little extra room around the toes of the boot which can be taken up for a volume spacer or my adding foot inserts. I haven’t found this room to create movement in the boot while walking, but I can tell there is a little extra room. For me, it wasn’t a deal breaker.

On the inside of the Columbia Bugaboot, Columbia uses its popular Omniheat which is a combination of little reflective dots that reflect your heat back to your body verses venting it outside of the boot. Most of you have probably seen advertisements on TV or in magazines, but the technology actually does work. For the insulation in the Bugaboot, Columbia uses 100 gram insulation that has kept my feet warm while walking in zero degree weather. One of the problems with winter boots that many of us encounter is that winter boots tend to stay warm, but get clammy. I wore these boots for a day both inside and outside to see if my feet would overheat or get clammy, but I did not experience either. After taking the boots off, I noticed there was moisture in the boot when sticking my hand inside the boot, but this did not affect my heat or comfort levels.

On the outsole of the Columbia Bugaboot, there are medium sized lugs for traction. These lugs do the job for the most part, but if you end up on ice, I suggest using a more robust traction system like Yaktrax. I find these boots to do best in and around town, but if you end up going for a short winter hike, these boots will do just fine. If you end up going on more technical trails, I suggest going with either a winter hiking boot or a mountaineering boot.

After many days of testing the Columbia Bugaboots, I am happy to report back that they get my stamp of approval. The Bugaboot retails for $140 and can be found on www.columbia.com or www.amazon.com/columbia.