Improvised Footwear to Keep Your Feet Warm and Dry

improvised footwear

You are out for the day and are 50 or 60 miles from home, when your car quits from EMP, or some other catastrophic event occurs, and you have to walk home.  The weather is not good, you have to deal with snow, cold or rain and you only have a pair of tennis shoes.  How can you make improvised footwear?

If you have any kind of a get home kit, hopefully you will have a couple of plastic bags large enough to fit over your feet and extra pair of socks.  Put both pairs of socks on and then pull the plastic bag over them.  Now put your shoes on and this will help keep your feet dry.  The down side to this is that you need to be careful that you don’t defeat the system by letting your socks get wet from sweat.  The plastic doesn’t breath.

If you just have sandals, flip-flops or no shoes, you can make foot wraps from the materials that are available in many vehicles.  You can use the materials from the seats, make a footwrap out of the foam insulation and then cover it with the material from your seat covers or carpeting.  You can use wire to tie it around your legs.  The remaining foam padding and insulation can be used to insulate the rest of your clothes.  See a prior post Footwraps as Improvised Socks or Foot Wear

improvised footwear
Stuff insulation material inside your socks
improvised footwear
Footwear made from socks, dry grass and a strong cloth

Improvised footwear can be made out of something as simple as cloth and grass or newspapers.  Grass has been used by northern natives and hunters/trappers, for a long time to help insulate their feet and preserve their socks.  They put the dry grass between their socks and boots or footwraps.  Good dry grass will absorb the perspiration and your socks will be dryer.  The Grass will add another layer of insulation to keep your feet warm (as you get colder your body will make sure the core stays warm and your extremities such as your hands and feet will get much cooler)

See also  The Many Uses of Borax

If you can’t find dry grass, make a wooden “grate” and dry the grass near a fire, make sure you don’t burn the grass.  Newspapers can also be use in place of grass.  This often works best if shredded or fluffed up.  The whole idea of improvise footwear is to keep your feet dry and warm.

Howard

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2 thoughts on “Improvised Footwear to Keep Your Feet Warm and Dry”

  1. What a good idea ~ we never think to take advantage of what’s in our vehicles. I’d rather destroy my car seats, as they are replaceable, than to get frostbite on my feet, which are not replaceable.

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