Fortunately, you don’t have to sift through option after option and hope for the best. (Hope isn’t much help after you’ve slipped on a patch of ice in your not-as-great-as-expected boots.) Researchers at iDAPT, the research arm of the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – University Health Network in Toronto, perform comprehensive tests on top snow and ice boots to determine which boots are capable of reducing your risk of slipping and falling on ice in harsh winter conditions. iDAPT tests shoes by having researchers and test subjects walk across an ice floor while observers slowly increase the angle in what they call the Maximum Achievable Angle Test. The floor is tilted until the subject slips; the angle before the slippage occurs is the Maximum Achievable Angle (MAA) for that pair of shoes and is scored on a range of one to 15. Any shoes that earn an MAA score lower than seven get no accolades; anything higher earns one, two, or three snowflakes, with three being the very best. iDAPT tests shoes on upward and downward slopes, cold ice, and wet ice conditions, so if they give a pair of shoes a snowflake, you can be sure they’ll greatly reduce your chance of slipping. For the women’s casual footwear section—aka not metal studded or spiked shoes or over-shoe traction aids—the highest score given this year so far has been two snowflakes. We picked seven top-performing snow and ice boots that are currently available for purchase from iDAPT’s ranking. All earned an MAA score of seven or higher, and all are approved for wet and cold ice. Read on to see them and find buying links—you can thank us (and iDAPT, of course) after your slip-free winter.
