US Military Bunny Boots (BATA/MINER)

Bunny boots are extreme cold temperature boots that will keep your feet warm down to -60° F in cold dry weather in snow or ice conditions. Wear them hunting, snowmobiling, ice fishing, snowshoeing, working in the oilfields, whatever you’re doing in the bitter cold. You’ll especially appreciate them when you’re not moving a lot. These Miner and Bata bunny boots are in used condition and will show signs of age and use. With cracks, discoloration in the rubber, may not be matching dates. Limited quantities. Please call or email if ordering more than 1 to check inventory availability.

Bunny Boot Features

• Roomy toe box for thick, wool socks and flexibility so you can wiggle your toes
• Thick insulation (2 layers of 1/2″ thick wool felt) in the footbed to prevent heat loss standing on ice or frozen ground
• Waterproof rubber vapor barrier is sealed so no moisture from outside the boot — or your sweaty foot inside the boot — gets in to compromise the insulative qualities of the air and wool felt sandwiched between each layer
• Rubber wedges on front of toe and back of heel lock into military-standard ski and snowshoe bindings.

What’s in a Name Like ‘Bunny Boots’?

No one, not even our U.S. troops that wear them, call bunny boots by their official name of ‘ Extreme Cold Vapor Barrier Boots (Type II)’. Their cousins, black Mickey Mouse boots, have the same name except they are ‘Type I’ for less cold conditions. How original of our military! They were both originally designed by the Navy Clothing and Textile Research Center (Natick, MA) for use during the Korean War.

Now no good boot should have to suffer such a name! The Snowshoe Hare is common around the Fort Greely Army Garrison in Alaska. It’s brown fur turns white in winter to blend in with the snow and it has big, fluffy ‘snowshoe-like’ back feet. So the soldiers there dubbed their ultra-warm clodhoppers ‘Bunny Boots’!

Don’t sweat those silly air valves!

There’s all kinds of confusion about those valves. Just ignore them unless you plan to take them on an airplane. That’s the only time you need to open the air valves to make sure the air pressure between the sealed rubber walls that sandwich the boot insulation and the outside air doesn’t cause the boots to rupture. Mystery solved. If you want them to keep your feet warm — and we think you do — keep them closed.

Bunny Boots Sizing

Bunny boots are only available in men’s full sizes and they run large. So we recommend men order a half size smaller and women two sizes smaller than their normal size. We usually have a good selection in sizes 5 to 15. Miner and Bata bunny boots size 12 and size 11 are tough to come by so sometimes they sell before we list them on our website. Same story with hard-to-find bunny boots in extra narrow, narrow, or extra wide widths. So be sure to call us if you need a size not shown as it might have just come in and this will be your lucky day!

Military Bunny Boots Reviews

In addition to the reviews on our site, Scott Oeth of Bull Moose Patrol has an excellent review on Bunny Boots that is worth a read. Our favorite snippet:

“Why Bunny Boots? Simply put: I've never had cold feet in them. There are other types of Winter footwear that I might wear depending on the conditions and the activity… but if it’s subzero, and if I know I’m going to be stationary for long periods of time, Bunny Boots are my fail-safe plan.”