Courtesy of Moovculture

Sheepskin boots are all fine and dandy – if you never leave your home. The demand for comfy, warm, salt-proof boots is in its peak season right now, and with all the slush and mud we know and love in Toronto, it’s no wonder why we go through a new pair every year. Kristen Barnicke knows this dilemma all too well; which is why we sat down together to talk about her hot-selling solution: Moovboots.

Kristen: It was a chance encounter really. I was browsing online and stumbled upon this website advertising rubber boots with merino wool lining. I’d been searching for a while and couldn’t find anything in particular that I liked. (I also didn’t want to wear the same contour boots that everyone else was wearing), so once I found Moovculture, I asked them how I could get a pair in Canada. Well, they were unavailable (of course!) and so I decided to try and bring them over. Canadian girls really need these boots. There are other wool-lined boots out there, but these are certified merino wool from Australia, which feels entirely different to your average sheepskin boot. Six months later, I signed an exclusive distribution deal for Canada, and finally got the delivery in October.

– The Cowgirls couldn’t wait any longer. The boots were already on our feet as if they’d just entered foot-heaven. For those unaccustomed to merino wool, it’s the cashmere of all wools. If football was all about wool, these boots would be Dan Merino. But what about the $310 price tag? We had to ask:

Pony: How are the boots made? What makes them better than Wellingtons?

Courtesy of Moovculture

Kristen: They build the rubber boot separately (using tire-grade rubber on the sole to prevent any wear) to the wool insole. It’s a technique used in order to keep the natural oils in the merino wool. If you made this boot all in one piece; melting the wool to secure it, it would dry the merino right out. That’s what a lot of bigger companies do in order to stay cost-efficient but in the end, the wool turns into the kind you see in most sheepskin boots. And because these are made entirely out of rubber on the outside, they can go through anything. A lot of Winter boots only have rubber on or around the sole, letting slush just seep in higher up.

Pony: Plus these look like they could be worn during the Spring and Fall as well.

Kristen: I wore mine all Summer actually, because this Summer was so rainy and cold. My friends were wearing their own rain boots to go running in, but it was a sad sight because they ended up getting cuts on their legs without having the proper lining inside.

Pony: Which is your most popular style?

Kristen: Definitely the Le Signature series, which comes in black, pink, and grey. With these, the sheepskin inside is dyed to match the colour of the boot. I had a back-order recently on these, people just love them. I love them.

Courtesy of Moovculture

To find a pair of these sexy booties in Toronto, here’s where to shop:

TNT
Vocado
Canopy Blue
Adrian’s
Running Fox
Dew
Get Outside

XoXo
– The Cowgirls