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Boat shoes are the perfect sockless casual slip-on. No other footwear can transition as seamlessly from a boat ride to a restaurant to lazing around on a porch as these stylish yet casual must-haves. They can also do the job of indoor/outdoor house slippers.
For those who already have a pair in their rotation, there’s probably still more to learn about the history, construction differences, and range of comfort involved with boat shoes—from thin-soled options that let you feel the deck of a sailboat to more cushioned styles you can walk in for hours.
I’ve tried them all and am here to report back which ones are the right fit for various purposes. Our best overall pick for a great boat shoe is the Sebago Docksides Portland Crazy Horse. Its simple construction and uniquely durable leather makes this a long-lasting classic that’ll work well on or off the water.
These are the best boat shoes you can buy today. They include everything from those that you can own for a lifetime and resole over and over, to dressier models you can easily wear to dinner with a sport coat, to more active options that you can truly batter on the open seas.
Best Boat Shoes of 2024 at a Glance
- Best Boat Shoes Overall: Sebago Docksides Portland Crazy Horse
- Best Boat Shoes for Dressing Up: Sperry Gold Cup Authentic Original Boat Shoe
- Best Boat Shoes for Actual Boating: Rancourt & Company Read Boat Shoe
- Best Boat Shoes for Customization: Quoddy Head Made-to-Order Boat Shoe
- Best Boat Shoes for Relaxing: Oak Street Bootmakers Camp Moc
- Best Boat Shoes for Wearing to Dinner: Sid Mashburn Suede Camp Moccasin
- Best Boat Shoes for Pavement: Thursday Boots Handsewn Runner
- Best Boat Shoe for All Seasons: Peter Millar Excursionist Leather Boat Shoe
- Best Boat Shoes for Off-Road: Oak Street Bootmakers Rowing Oxford
- Best Boat Shoes for Driving: Sperry Gold Cup Handcrafted in Maine 1-Eye Driver
- Best Suede Boat Shoes: Easymocs Monomoy 2-Eye Boat Shoe
Best Boat Shoes of 2024
Best Boat Shoes Overall: Sebago Docksides Portland Crazy Horse
Stinson Carter
Sebago makes a lot of classic boat shoes, but what sets the Portland Crazy Horse apart is the leather that ages uniquely and responds to water and abuse by simply acquiring a nice patina. Despite the name, it’s not horse leather but full-grain cowhide that got its name from the fact that it was popular in saddle making because of its durability and the way it can acquire a polished surface with time and wear. The Portland name is an homage to the boating culture of Maine.
The interior of the shoe is unlined, with a leather half-insole. Because of the simple construction and uniquely durable leather, this could be your ideal option if you want a classic leather boat shoe but intend to really put these to work on the water.
Best Boat Shoes for Dressing Up: Sperry Gold Cup Authentic Original Boat Shoe
Stinson Carter
Paul Sperry sold off his shoemaking enterprise early in his career to dedicate himself to his family business, but this boat shoe remains the closest descendant of Sperry’s original. The Gold Cup is an upscale version of Sperry’s Authentic Original boat shoe.
It has a layer of leather between the sole and the upper that dresses it up, making it well suited to wearing with a blazer. Handsewn with lambskin lining and a cushioned heel cup and OrthoLite insole, the shoe provides an extremely soft and pliable leather upper. When combined with its plush insole, there’s no break-in needed on these.
Best Boat Shoes for Actual Boating: Rancourt & Company Read Boat Shoe
Stinson Carter
Family-owned and founded in Maine in the 1960s, Rancourt & Company does boat shoes right—making them by hand in its own Maine factory. The flagship boat shoe, the Read, is made of unlined Horween Chromexcel leather. This makes the shoes good for warm weather, and ensures the leather will easily conform to your foot over time.
They have nonslip and non-marking deck soles, rust-resistant nickel-plated eyelets, and a leather half-insole. The Horween leather can last a lifetime if properly cared for, and these can be resoled as many times as needed.
Best Boat Shoes for Customization: Quoddy Head Made-to-Order Boat Shoe
Stinson Carter
Quoddy is another legacy Maine shoemaker, founded in 1947. As with Rancourt, its shoes are made by hand at the brand’s factory. Quoddy offers a made-to-order boat shoe, so you can truly customize every visual detail—picking the type of metal for the eyelets, the color of the thread used in the stitching, and the color of the soles and the leather. They have cushioned insoles, full leather lining, and triple eyelets give them a much more secure fit than the usual two-eyelet boat shoe style.
All of these details add up to a shoe that will hug your feet in a soft leather grasp like no boat shoe you’ve ever worn. And because they are able to be infinitely resoled, they’re well worth the investment for the bespoke customization.
Best Boat Shoes for Relaxing: Oak Street Bootmakers Camp Moc
Stinson Carter
Camp moccasins are very similar to boat shoes, and visually they can be hard to tell apart at first glance. But the subtle differences are perfect if you want something other than a typical boat shoe. Camp mocs have a one-piece “apron” toe, and they traditionally have pebbled soles instead of siped soles.
These mocs from Oak Street Bootmakers in Chicago are handsewn in the U.S. with Horween Chromexcel leather, and their darker pebbled sole can make them slightly more versatile than a white sole in certain settings, as the dark brown blends better with a pair of khakis while still being non-marking. They have a leather half-insole and are unlined to allow for a cooler-wearing shoe that conforms easily to your foot.
Best Boat Shoes for Wearing to Dinner: Sid Mashburn Suede Camp Moccasin
Stinson Carter
Atlanta-based Sid Mashburn is one of the finest men’s stores in the country, with a remarkable level of curation and a serious focus on service. The brand doesn’t put its name on anything that isn’t great, and these hybrid camp mocs are no exception. They have a suede upper that makes them more fashion-centric than sailboat-ready, but unlike traditional camp mocs they do have a siped white sole like a boat shoe, so they could do well on deck.
The Suede Camp Moccasins are made in Portugal and are leather-lined with a full leather insole. For under $200, they’re a great value, and even come with two nice green Sid Mashburn shoe bags. They are also available in a leather version in lieu of the suede.
Best Boat Shoes for Pavement: Thursday Boots Handsewn Runner
Stinson Carter
This is what happens when you crossbreed a boat shoe with a running shoe: a casual loafer with a need for speed. The style could be divisive, but put them on your feet and it’s hard to go back to a normal boat shoe. The anti-microbial lining means that if you do break out into a jog, sweating in them won’t make them too sour. For standing on your feet all day, this hybrid boat shoe from Thursday is superb. While it may not appeal to boat shoe purists, it’s a good value and offers next-level comfort.
Best Boat Shoe for All Seasons: Peter Millar Excursionist Leather Boat Shoe
Stinson Carter
The first thing you notice about these Peter Millar boat shoes is the extremely soft leather. Made in Brazil with a hand-stitched toe, they are instantly as comfortable as slippers, and they look slightly dressier than a typical boat shoe because of the tan sole and the uniform color of the uppers and laces. A truly special card up their sleeve is that they come with a pair of optional wool shearling insoles that transform them into a cool-weather (or fireside) loafer you may want to wear as much inside as outside.
Best Boat Shoes for Off-Road: Oak Street Bootmakers Rowing Oxford
Stinson Carter
The Rowing Oxford from Oak Street Bootmakers ventures into seriously rugged territory without sacrificing the feeling of luxury. With soft and durable Horween Chromexcel leather, the uppers require no breaking in and will last a decade or more. The Vibram Montagna hiking sole has conquered Mount Everest, so it will handle your adventures just fine. As a luxury loafer, you’ll gain an inch of height in these. As a travel shoe, whether on the trail or in the city, these will fare much better than a thin-soled traditional boat shoe.
Best Boat Shoes for Driving: Sperry Gold Cup Handcrafted in Maine 1-Eye Driver
Stinson Carter
Part of Sperry’s top-tier line, these are the ultimate moccasin driving shoes. The Horween Chromexcel leather paired with perforated leather lining fits your foot like driving gloves fit your hands. The flexible rubber nub soles give you an incredible feel for the pedals of a car, and when you’re out on foot, they’re as comfortable as slippers. Details like red stitch accents highlight the handsewn quality of these shoes.
Best Suede Boat Shoes: Easymocs Monomoy 2-Eye Boat Shoe
Stinson Carter
Easymocs boat shoes are handmade in Maine. The suede is butter-soft and needs no breaking in. These excel in the style category and stand out as the boat shoes you might pair with sockless chinos at a garden party. Suede is not a traditional boat shoe leather because it doesn’t repel water, but if you desire greater waterproofing, they can be easily treated with a protector. They are fully re-craftable and have a comfortable Ortholite foot bed.
What to Look for in Boat Shoes
Get the sole that’s right for you. The traditional boat shoe sole is a white non-marking sole with siping—tiny cuts that provide traction while you’re on the wet deck of a boat. Camp mocs are similar to boat shoes, but have a brown, pebbled sole. While most of these are still non-marking, they won’t provide the same traction on wet surfaces. That said, they can be slightly better at traction on dry surfaces. The outlier is a hybrid boat shoe like the Timberland here, that has lug soles which make it suitable for hiking.
Materials
Leather, suede, or canvas? That depends. The original Top-Siders were made of canvas, and later upgraded to leather. Canvas has the advantage of being less expensive, and a synthetic canvas can hold up better to being soaked in water without drying out. Leather, especially a good Horween, will be far superior in comfort, and because of the high wax content the shoes still hold up well if they get wet. Suede boat shoes are definitely better for wearing more for style than nautical function, which will seriously damage the material.
Cushioning
How much cushion do you need? Foot support is not a strong suit for boat shoes. If you’re spending hours on a sailboat, you really want to feel the boat deck under your feet, so the thin soles and limited (or nonexistent) padding makes sense. But, if you want to walk in them for long periods of time, something like the Sperry Gold Cup has more ankle cushioning, and the full leather linings of the Quoddy boat shoes also provide more cushion.
Construction
Mass-produced versus handmade? This will likely come down to budget, but if you want a pair of fine handmade boat shoes crafted in Maine, the cost will be significantly higher. The difference between sliding your feet into a made-in-Maine boat shoe and a mass-produced version is significant—and the price reflects that.
What Makes Boat Shoes Special (and Uniquely American)?
Paul Sperry invented boat shoes in the 1930s after falling overboard on his sailboat because of slippery soles. At the time, boat shoes were made of canvas with either crepe soles or rope soles—the former slippery when wet and the latter slippery when dry.
Sperry, a tinkerer, went to work in his home workshop in Connecticut, making a nonslip sole that would keep him “Top-Side.” Inspired by his dog’s paws as he ran easily over snow and ice in his backyard, Sperry used a blade to cut lines in a rubber sole, and by applying pressure from different directions he landed on a zigzag pattern—now known as “siping”—which is key to the boat shoe’s nonslip factor.
His original models were canvas, but he soon improved upon them by using a leather upper of a moccasin style. “The moccasin is the original athletic shoe,” says Kyle Rancourt of Maine shoemaker Rancourt & Company. “Sperry just combined the need for a nonslip sole with a comfy moccasin.”
A big order from Abercrombie & Fitch catapulted Sperry’s invention to nationwide notoriety, and they became the official shoe of the U.S. Navy during World War II. Even John F. Kennedy wore them while he was running his PT-109 missions in the South Pacific.
But why do we associate them with Maine if their inventor was from Connecticut? “Maine was the largest shoemaking area in the country in the 20th century,” explains Rancourt, “The peak was the 1950s, with dozens of shoe factories in Maine, like Bass, Dexter, and Quoddy—a rich shoemaking heritage combined with coastal culture and lifestyle.”
Why You Should Trust Me
I’ve been covering gear and style from a home base in Los Angeles and now Charleston, SC, since 2006, for outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Maxim, Gear Patrol, Fatherly, and Men’s Journal. Whether it’s testing out gear, bags, clothing, and accessories on my own adventures, or profiling designers and craftspeople who make them, it’s been one continuous process of discovery, and an ongoing search for the essentials that bring joy, serve a purpose, and add value to our experiences.
Ever since I moved to the Southern capital of boat shoes, they have become part of my daily routine for nine months out of the year. In a land of warm weather, water, and boats, these slip-on staples are as much workwear as fashion. Over the past eight years, I’ve owned many pairs, worn most of them ragged, and have developed some strong opinions on the subject.