A type of ankle-height chukka boot traditionally made with a suede upper and a crepe-rubber sole.
A desert boot is a chukka boot identified by its materials: a suede upper on a crepe rubber sole. The pattern is the chukka’s. Crockett & Jones describes “a Chukka boot (or Desert boot)” as three pieces of outer material, an inside quarter, an outside quarter and a vamp, with a leg cut above the ankle and two to three eyelets.
The V&A, which holds Clarks desert boots of 1994 in suede and rubber, notes that the design was launched in 1950 and developed from the rough, crepe-soled suede boots that officers in Montgomery’s army had made in a bazaar in Cairo. What separates a desert boot from other chukkas is the suede and the crepe sole, not the cut. The Chelsea boot, at a similar height, has elastic sides instead of laces.
In job listings
Desert boot is a product name rather than a job title, and it turns up in collections and product copy. The roles around it are in men’s footwear: designers, product development assistants and collection merchandisers who work on a season’s shoes and boots. See current footwear merchandiser roles.
