Written by Megan Smith, PT
Walking boots are a popular alternative for individuals recovering from lower leg, ankle, and foot injuries, offering a lighter and more streamlined alternative to traditional casts. These boots provide adjustable support and comfort, helping alleviate pain and swelling from sprains, stable fractures, plantar fasciitis, and tendonitis. When shopping for a walking boot, consider the fit, level of support, ease of adjustment, and overall comfort to ensure effective and safe mobility during recovery.
 | 1) Stabilizer - Standard Foot and Ankle Support View Product |
As a popular orthopedic device frequently prescribed for treating and stabilizing injuries and conditions affecting the feet, ankles, and lower legs, walking boots come in a diverse array of styles and sizes with various features to suit the needs of their individual users. Also known as walking casts, walkers, ankle stabilizers, ortho boots, moon boots, medical boots, and CAM (Controlled Ankle Motion/Movement) walkers, all walking boots are removable, adjustable, and provide a much more lightweight, comfortable option to conventional plaster casts.
Formatted with rocker soles to encourage a natural gait or flat soles for easier standing, most walking boots can be used on either the right or left foot. Here are some of the main features to consider before you make your selection:
Walking boots come in either a short format that stops a few inches above the ankle or a tall format that stops about an inch below the knee.
Low-top styles are typically better for mild to moderate injuries that don’t need as much support, mostly indicated for metatarsal and digital fractures, postoperative foot surgery, and soft tissue trauma of the ankle and foot.
Utilized for more severe injuries and providing more immobilization support than short boots, high-top styles are generally better for soft tissue injuries of the lower leg, stress fractures, acute ankle sprains, and stable foot and ankle fractures. Taller patients are often more comfortable and better supported by high-top medical boots. In comparison, shorter patients with severe injuries can often use low-top medical boots to achieve comfortable and effective support.
Ranging from soft to rigid, walking boots come in various support levels to provide adjustable immobilization levels for the recovering injury or medical condition. Rigid and semi-rigid designs provide the highest immobilizing support and are often used immediately following surgery or an injury when movement needs to be more restrictive. As recovery progresses, the need for immobilization decreases, and softer supports can be employed that still restrict movement, but to a much lesser degree.
Frequently referred to as air casts or pneumatic boots, walking boots that use airbladders can be pumped to your desired level of compression to optimize comfort and stabilization during every phase of your recovery. Contouring around the leg, these air bladders help reduce movement of the lower leg, ankle, and foot within the boot while also aiding in reducing swelling and pain. In addition, this conveniently customizable air padding helps to accommodate enough room for edema and bandages to guard against skin irritation and blistering.
Although most walking boots are formulated with cushioning impact, one of the more innovative features available with some of these designs is anti-shock technology. Specially configured to decrease the risk of further injury, anti-vibration and anti-shock soles reduce the impact from each step, helping mitigate the pain and fatigue often inherent with walking when recovering from an injury or operation.
Most walking boots come with soft, breathable, moisture-wicking liners to optimize comfort and hygiene. If extra liners are available, it’s a good idea to purchase them so you always have a clean one to use every day. Walking boot liners are important to ensure patient compliance in wearing the boot for the best recovery outcomes and to help reduce chafing, irritation, itching, pressure sores, and other skin problems.
A walking boot helps control the movement of the lower leg, ankle, and foot, supporting the user’s weight while walking. Often used post-injury and following surgery, walking boots help protect the affected area from further harm. They also promote quicker healing and reduce pain and swelling. They make standing and walking safer, allowing patients to get back to daily living activities as they recover from lower extremity trauma.
Depending on the severity of your injury or medical condition, your physician may instruct you to wear a walking boot for anywhere from one to eight weeks. Most medical conditions affecting the feet and ankles, such as plantar fasciitis and tendonitis, require one to two weeks of wearing a walking cast to correct. In comparison, sprains typically require two to four weeks. Fractures generally require the most healing time, often requiring six to eight weeks or more of wearing a walking cast.
Walking boots are used in place of hard plaster casts to help heal and protect a wide range of mild, moderate, and severe injuries to the foot, ankle, and lower leg. Walking boots are often indicated for sprains, fractures (mostly stable), tendon/ligament tears, soft tissue, and repetitive strain injuries, stress fractures, and a host of post-operative conditions, such as following Achilles tendonitis or bunion surgery. Walking boots assist in the reduction of pain, edema, and inflammation that are often associated with injuries, along with medical conditions like neuroma, plantar fasciitis, metatarsalgia, sesamoiditis, tendonitis, and more.
While you should always follow your doctor’s advice, in most cases, walking boots can be removed while you sleep. They are mostly utilized as support and protection for walking, allowing you to continue daily activities as you recover from surgery, injury, or acute medical condition. If you remove the walking boot at night, put it back on before standing up and walking to use the bathroom or in the morning before you get up.
Whether you should shower wearing your walking boot depends on your unique situation and your doctor's advice. Most walking boots are not designed for that kind of contact with water. If you do need to wear a walking boot while showering or bathing, be sure you keep it covered and protected from the water, as it could adversely affect its support and durability and make it unsafe.
Even though the use of walking boots can help the vast majority of patients recover from injuries more quickly, there are some situations where these medical boots have been known to cause leg-length discrepancy and adverse gait alterations. Secondary site pain is also common when wearing walking boots, with some users reporting lower back and lower extremity discomfort, usually resulting from the discrepancy in height between the walking boot and the footwear used on the unaffected foot. A specially designed even-up shoe balancer for your other uninjured foot can help tremendously prevent these issues.
 | Short Walking Cast Boot View Product |
The Short Walking Cast Boot by Allard USA, our number 5 pick, is designed to provide superior support and immobilization for the foot and ankle, making it an ideal choice for recovery from injuries. It features a steel-reinforced rocker bottom that enhances natural walking motion and extra heel width for improved stability and surface contact. The boot has a seamless, breathable liner that wicks away moisture, ensuring comfort during extended wear. With ample tread for better grip and a padded insole for shock absorption, this walking cast boot effectively limits ankle joint mobilization while promoting a comfortable healing process.
 | Short Air Walking Cast View Product |
The Short Air Walking Cast by Allard USA, our number 4 pick, is designed to provide sturdy support and immobilization for the foot and ankle, facilitating a smoother recovery process. This walking cast features an integrated pneumatic single-bladder air system, which cushions the boot and ensures a proper fit. Its steel-reinforced rocker bottom allows a more natural walking motion, while the extra-wide heel offers enhanced stability and surface contact. The breathable, seamless liner wicks away moisture, ensuring comfort during extended wear. Available in black, the Short Air Walking Cast combines functionality with comfort, making it an excellent choice for injury recovery.
 | Stabilizer Air Walker Standard Tall Foot and Ankle Support Boot View Product |
The Stabilizer Air Walker Standard Tall Foot and Ankle Support Boot by United Ortho, our number 3 choice, offers exceptional support and comfort for those recovering from ankle sprains, soft tissue injuries, stable fractures, and post-operative conditions. Featuring lightweight construction and plastic molded uprights with spring steel reinforcement, this boot ensures durability and effective immobilization. The contoured strut design conforms to the leg for a superior fit, while the medial/lateral air cell system provides equal inflation on both sides for balanced support. The wide footbed enhances stability and comfort, and the low-profile rocker bottom promotes a natural gait, making the Stabilizer Air Walker an ideal choice for recovery.
 | Stabilizer - Ankle Support View Product |
The number 2 slot in our review goes to the Stabilizer - Ankle Support by United Ortho for its exceptionally beneficial design offered at an economical price point. This medical boot delivers maximum stability and support and uses plastic-molded uprights with steel reinforcements for dependable durability. It also allows patients to personalize the changing level of compression they require with its innovative medial and lateral air bladders, helping to reduce swelling and pain. Available in 5 different sizes, this ankle support also offers the option of replacement liners for optimal wearability.
Helping to enhance stability, the significantly wider footbed of the Stabilizer offers roomy comfort for patients with wider feet. At the same time, it also better accommodates the extra space needed for edema or bandages. This walking boot’s shock-absorbing insole is specially designed to reduce the impact from each heel strike, while its rocker sole facilitates easier walking and a natural gait so you can continue daily activities as you heal from lower extremity injury. The Stabilizer is ideal for acute ankle sprains, stable lower leg, ankle, and foot fractures, post-op, and soft tissue injuries.
 | Stabilizer - Standard Foot and Ankle Support View Product |
We gave the Stabilizer - Standard Foot and Ankle Support by United Ortho the 1st position on our list because of its additional support that can be used for more kinds of injuries. Like our number 3 selection, this lightweight walking boot features a wider footbed to enhance stability, evenly distributing pressure to optimize walking comfort. It also reduces the impact from each step with its shock-absorbing insole and includes a low-profile rocker bottom to ensure a natural gait.
The higher profile of this Stabilizer boot delivers added support and protection for healing a wide range of injuries and medical conditions affecting the lower leg, ankle, and foot. Its contoured strut design conforms to the leg, ensuring the best fit and easier application and removal. The non-slip tread helps to prevent slips and falls, especially on wet or slippery surfaces. Available in 5 different sizes to ensure a perfect, adjustable fit for every patient, this taller Stabilizer is priced like the shorter version, providing exceptional value at a low price.
Walking boots are essential for the healing of lower leg, ankle, and foot injuries, as well as postoperative conditions and acute medical issues. They help to limit movement, allowing these injuries and conditions to heal more quickly and effectively.
Available in a wide array of styles and sizes, a medical boot also helps to relieve pain, inflammation, and swelling and protects the affected area against further harm.
Although many of the walking boots we chose for our top 5 could be the best match for a variety of users, we selected the Stabilizer - Standard Foot and Ankle Support as our number 1 choice for the additional support that can accommodate multiple injury types.
We invite you to learn more about how to choose the best walking cast boot in our Caregiver University article. You can also look through our comprehensive Braces & Splints catalog for more ideas on supporting yourself or a loved one to heal from an injury, medical condition, or surgery. Lastly, visit Caregiver University for more free informative articles!
Megan has been a part of Rehabmart since its inception nearly 20 years ago. For the past several years she has been enjoying her role as HR Director while maintaining her Physical Therapy license. When she isn't working on her next in-service or working to find a new team member, she enjoys her five children, helping those who have PT type ailments, baking, practicing yoga, and working out.
