An Alaska company is working to build a better bunny boot

PALMER — An Alaska company plans to bring back the iconic bunny boot that many love for its warmth in subzero temperatures, but which the U.S. military rarely commissions anymore.

Alaska Gear Co. wants to make a better version of the bulbous rubber boot that can be hard to find and expensive at surplus stores, said Sean McLaughlin, the company’s majority owner. Many of those original boots are decades old, and the rubber eventually wears out, he said.

“The bunny boot is unbelievable in its protection, but it’s super old,” he said. “And a lot has changed in footwear since these were first designed. And because they were kind of locked in by a military spec, they just never changed.”

After 2 1/2 years of planning, the Arctic outfitter and airplane parts manufacturer has created 30 prototype pairs. It will soon select Alaskans and others to test them this winter in the harshest conditions, before it launches commercial production this summer.

The Alaska Gear prototypes are visibly different from the original ones U.S. soldiers began wearing in the Korean War. But the structure that provides the warmth — like a thermos for feet — is generally the same.

Many Alaskans consider the original bunny boot the ultimate cold-weather footwear, capable of protecting their feet from freezing even after they’ve plunged into overflow ice.

The military largely stopped making bunny boots in the 1990s, though it recently commissioned a limited, emergency production run, McLaughlin said.

“Consumers have never had access to a brand-new pair of these, which is kind of crazy considering how much people rely on them,” he said.

[Coverage from 1995: No More Bunny Boots. The big, white stompers that keep feet warm at 50 below are going the way of the Cold War.]

In the military, the shoes were known as “extreme cold vapor barrier boots,” McLaughlin said. But they were nicknamed bunny boots after the feet of the snowshoe hare, according to online historical accounts.

“The boot has to work to minus 40, and the military has tested them to minus 60,” McLaughlin said.

Alaska Gear Co. got a taste of the boot’s popularity in late December, when the company announced its plans on social media.

Hundreds of comments poured in from snowmachiners, mushers, North Slope oil workers, ice fishermen and other aficionados interested in a new version of the boot.

Many said they’re ready to sign up as testers.

“I’ve sunk a snowmachine at negative temperatures and ... my feet were the only thing that was warm. Definitely interested,” wrote one poster.

“I’m a distance musher living off the road system and I can wear a pair of bunnies to shreds. I’ve always hoped a modern company would step in and make them commercially and account for all the issues with bunnies (no grip, weak toe box hinge, weak grommets, grommet holes not big enough to do double back lacing at ankle, the list goes on!),” wrote another.

“Wow they look so great! 😍 I wear mine every day! The only boots that keep my feet toasty 🥰,” someone else posted.

McLaughlin said the company has been “overwhelmed” with more than 100 emails a day since the post.

The potential volunteer testers who have reached out include a Swedish reindeer herder, he said. The U.S. and Canadian militaries have also expressed interest in the new boot’s design, he said.

Even social media influencers have called. They might be interested in the boot’s “post-industrial” look, he said.

“We have people saying to us, ‘I don’t care what they cost, I’m an influencer and I want to wear this,’ ” he said.

On Wednesday at the company’s large factory in Palmer, McLaughlin pointed out new features in the prototypes. They were spaced evenly across tables, for inspections, he said.

Like the old-school boots, the Alaska Gear version is white and bulky. Each boot weighs in at almost 3 1/2 pounds. Insulation is sandwiched between two layers of rubber, sort of like insulation between the walls of a house.

But the new design has a chunkier tread with more traction, and there’s more felt insulation in the sole compared to the roughly 1-inch barrier of the predecessor, McLaughlin said. The new boots also have an aerated foot liner, and they fit more ergonomically, he said.

The calf extends higher for extra waterproof protection and easier slip-on. “The bunny boot saves your life if you get your foot wet, but you’d rather not get your foot wet to begin with,” he said.

Gone is the valve at the ankle that helped relieve boot pressure for parachuting soldiers, but also damaged the boot if it was used improperly, he said. The company has even designed a mostly wool sock, tailor-made for the boot, he said.

The company has moved slowly to design the boot, hiring a boot designer and cutting into old bunny boots to learn how they were assembled, according to McLaughlin.

Bunny boots are a “safety device” that can save lives in the backcountry, so the company took the design seriously, he said.

Designing a modern bunny boot was a natural fit for Alaska Gear, he said. The company had been called Airframes Alaska until a rebranding last year, intended to more fully describe the company’s range of products.

McLaughlin said the company’s customers frequently use the original version of the bunny boot until they wear out.

Among other products like sleds and Arctic Oven tents, Alaska Gear also specializes in making rubber tires for bush planes. It seemed like a logical opportunity to apply the plant’s rubber-hardening vulcanization process to making bunny boots, he said.

The Palmer factory is not yet set up to make the boots, so for now, Alaska Gear plans to contract out its first manufacturing run to a company outside Alaska, he said.

McLaughlin said he and employees at the company recently tested some of the prototypes in Fairbanks in temperatures approaching 30 below.

He dunked his socks in water then went on 3-mile hike in the boots. During the hike, he yanked his foot out of the boot, froze it onto the snow and tossed snow in the boot, before slipping it back on and carrying on.

His feet were in good shape even after all that. In his view, the new version is as good as the original bunny boot when it comes to warmth, he said. It’s also way more comfortable.

But the field testers will have their own views, he said. This coming week, Alaska Gear Co. plans to announce the opening of the application process for field testers on its Instagram account, he said.

The testing will run through April, and will likely lead to modifications in the design, he said.

The first boots should be ready for sale by September, with a price of about $300, which is not far from what the original ones can sell for if a person can find the right size, he said.

“We’ll see what the world says,” he said. “The whole point now is this season, real Alaskans test them, they come back and tell us what we got right and what we got wrong. We go to one final version. And then we release (them).”