SHIRLEY | Lace up boots with ankle support

My ankle is the weak one after the fall. Laced up properly, I walk down the driveway without thinking about it.

An ankle that has been hurt once never quite stops being the ankle that was hurt. You get careful on slopes, on gravel, on the step down from the porch, and a lot of shoes make that worse by holding the foot loosely and leaving the ankle to do the work.

A lace-up boot is the old answer and still the best one. Laces let you set the tension exactly, tighter around the ankle and looser over the foot if that is what you need, and the support stays where you put it rather than slackening off. The shape is a plain vintage one, which is why they go with jeans and with a skirt rather than only one of them. Brown, black or gray.

Why women our age keep coming back to them

• You decide where the boot is tight. Laces let you firm up the ankle without squeezing the front of your foot, which no zipper or slip-on can do.
• The support does not fade by lunchtime. A laced boot holds the tension you set instead of gradually loosening the way an elastic panel does.
• Steady on uneven ground. That hold around the ankle is what makes a gravel path or a sloped lawn a walk rather than a calculation.
• Three colors and a plain shape. Brown, black and gray, cut simply enough that they have not dated and will not.

Buy more, save more

• Buy 2, save 10%
• Buy 3, save 15%
• Buy 4, save 20%

The discount is applied automatically at checkout.

How they fit

True to size, in US 5 through 13. Laces give you a wide adjustment range, so between two sizes take the larger one and pull them in. Do the same if your feet swell, since letting laces out is far easier than finding room a smaller boot does not have.

30 days to change your mind

If they are not right, send them back within 30 days for a full refund, with no restocking fee.

A few recent reviews

I hike a little, nothing serious, and these hold my ankle better than the boots I paid three times as much for.
Beatrix N., Flagstaff

The gray is a soft gray, not a cold one. Goes with more than I expected.
Maribeth S., Asheville

Takes a minute to lace them each morning and it is worth the minute.
Corinne P., 64