After about a week of living in the North, I realized I needed rain boots. Immediately. Because, as I discovered, when it rains here, it's not a one day event but a week long extravaganza. Having lost my umbrella this first week here, my quest for the perfect rain boots began.

I was craving a pair of super simple rain boots like the ones Mallory and I found in a thrift store about a year ago. She got them, but I've been secretly lusting over them ever since.

With the simplicity of these in mind, I started my search on Amazon, but was quickly disenchanted by all the gaudy, expensive boots. I didn't have any interest in the hundreds of boots I looked through, but I was inspired to look at American made boots when I saw English wellies for more than a hundred dollars.

A quick google search later and I discovered Sloggers, an American company that makes shoes primarily for gardening. I fell in love with their Garden Boot and figured that for $25 it couldn't do me any harm to at least try them out. Plus, they have a great review history, unlike many of the other boots I looked at.

I ordered a pair of tall red boots and stumbled upon these yellow slip-ons from J. Crew. These I ordered in case my red boots were late to arrive and a rainstorm struck. (Sure enough, the yellow slip-ons came several days before the red boots. The rainstorm, however, has still not arrived.)

I like both these rain shoes, but I have to admit I prefer the Sloggers at this point because of their simplicity. A key component I wanted in a rain boot was the lack of a buckle to tighten (or loosen) the top. When wearing rain boots, I typically pair them with tight pants and socks--having the opening tightened around my calf never made a lot of sense for me. After reading a lot of boot reviews, I know some people really like it, but I can't find a use for it.

The Sloggers have a pretty big opening that's allow me to wear them with looser pants if I wanted to and they come up to about mid-calf. The reviews and website recommends that you order up if you're a half size, and, even though I'm a pretty solid size six, I went up a size too. Since I plan on wearing socks with them, I'm glad I sized up. It makes them easy to slip on and off but they still stay on when I'm walking.

I hope to test both out soon (two or even four contiguous days of rain, please, Mr. Weatherman?) and will probably do an update after they get some use. More pictures and information after the jump.