XTRATUF is Alaska’s favourite brand, but unless you’re Alaskan yourself, you may never have even heard of them.
When XTRATUF was founded 75 years ago, it was to provide footwear to help Alaskans survive. Boots for locals to trudge through icy puddles and safely navigate the slippery decks of fishing boats. XTRATUF’s rubber boots – from day one – took a no-expense-spared approach to design, and that’s because people’s livelihoods genuinely depended on them.
Now in 2025, it is estimated that one in seven Alaskans has a pair of XTRATUFs sitting in their boot room – a pretty staggering acknowledgement of the brand’s approach to crafting top-notch footwear.
But here in the UK, the numbers look a little different. Which makes sense – we don’t exactly have grizzlies or glacial storms. But still, it can get pretty cold here. So how different are we, really?
To find out the answer, we decided to team up with XTRATUF to take a trip 4,700 miles from the Bering Sea to somewhere equally windswept, but far less perilous: Anglesey.
Anglesey might not share Alaska’s scale or sense of danger, but the parallels are there, if you look close enough. Both regions are defined by rugged and unpredictable coastlines, and both have locals who understand that a solid pair of boots can make or break a day outdoors.
To test the boots on Welsh soil, we settled on three Anglesey locations – Newborough Beach, Penmon Point, and Lligwy. Every area would put a different XTRATUF silhouette through its paces, each being judged on how well it transitioned to whatever Anglesey through at us.
First location- Newborough Beach, a golden stretch of sand framed by leaning pines. Here we would test XTRATUF’s Ankle Deck Boots, or ADBs, as they’re affectionately known by the locals. On our journey over, rain had been unrelenting all morning, but the moment we stepped onto Newborough Beach, the clouds broke. A clear indicator from the Gods that our field testing had begun.
As we trudged from dune to shore, XTRATUF’s ADB’s 6-inch height kept sand out and seawater at bay, and its 100% waterproof construction proved more than capable of handling the unpredictable tides. Top marks, by all accounts.
Looks-wise, XTRATUF scored points at Newborough too. The brown and cream tones sat comfortably against the coastal palette, pairing easily with our indigo denim and hefty down jackets.
Lunch came courtesy of a burger van parked beside the beach, where we quickly yammed a handful of bacon sandwiches before crossing the island in search of new terrain. And this is where Anglesey proved to be an invaluable choice: it’s only 25 miles wide, but turning down every corner feels like entering a different country.
When we reached Penmon Point, the sun was gone, the wind had picked up, and slick rock had replaced soft sand. Here we made use of XTRATUF’s Legacy Tall Boots – 15 inches of Alaskan engineering built for fishing fleets, now put to work wading through Welsh tidepools. And just as predicted, the boots made light work of it. Wet rock, seaweed, crumbly coastal boulders – the lot.
As daylight faded, our test shifted from wet to warm. We wrestled our way out of the Legacy Booys, and in their place came the Homer Slippers – water-resistant wool, non-slip soles, and unmatched levels of comfort. A reminder that XTRATUF’s expertise doesn’t stop at the shoreline.
By the time we reached our final destination – Lligwy – on the northern coast, Anglesey had softened. The wind had dropped, the clouds cleared, and the island felt almost calm. With ADBs back on foot, we set up a small basecamp in the dunes to debrief, skim stones, and watch the tide tuck itself into the horizon.
And it was here, in the stillness, that our question had more or less answered itself:
No. Anglesey isn’t Alaska. The stakes aren’t as high, the threats are fewer, and you’d have a much harder time finding anything that resembled Bara Brith. But when it comes to the elements – wind, water, salt, and stone – the challenge is the same. And XTRATUF handled it in the same way it would’ve done 4,700 miles west: without issue. Without drama. Without a single wet sock.
From fishing boats to burger vans, from the Bering Sea to the Menai Strait, the boots that define Alaskan grit proved to us they’re just as suited to Britain. Aesthetically and functionally.
Find out more about XTRATUF here, & read the full write-up in Issue 50 of Proper Magazine.
