And over and over again in our reporting, we’ve found that stylish women and men love the original, unlined Bean Boot for its durability and good looks. Though there are lots of winter boots that you can buy from countless other brands to keep your feet dry, “Any other winter duck boot is just trying to copy what L.L.Bean perfected more than a century ago,” declares Strategist editor (and L.L.Bean fan) Maxine Builder. The result is something so versatile, it can take you “from Greenwich Academy lacrosse practice to Sunday afternoon at Dover Street Market.”

It’s a laundry bag, a picnic basket, a way to schlep all your things across town.” In fact, as former Strategist writer Hilary Reid points out, they were originally designed for hauling ice back in the 1940s, but they’ve taken on a new life as an actually stylish bag in the decades since, “carried by both Carolyn Bessette in the ’90s and Chloë Sevigny in 2016.” And if you want to have even more fun with your tote, you can monogram it, as Strategist contributor Sadie Stein has done. Ming Thompson, an architect and principal at design firm Atelier Cho Thompson and proud owner of eight of these totes, says, “You might think this is a bag, but you’d be mistaken.

“No one can top the L.L.Bean Boat and Tote,” says Chris Black, host of the podcast How Long Gone, and our writers and editors heartily agree - so much so that the Boat and Tote is featured on the Strategist 100, our roundup of the best, most stood-behind products that have ever appeared on this website.

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