If those boots were made for walking, they can now be a couple of inches shorter.
Air Force officials are — err — walking back a July uniform order that mandated combat boots across the force be at least 8 inches high. That requirement will now be 6 inches, according to a social media post by Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force David Flosi this week, which an Air Force official confirmed to Task & Purpose. Airmen will have a year to update their footwear under the new, lower rule.
“We put out new guidance for approved boot height in OCPs,” Flosi wrote in a social media post. “Some issued boots don’t meet the new mark, even though they meet the spirit and intent of the new standard.”
An Air Force spokesperson told Task & Purpose that the exact language for the new boot rules would be released in a formal memo soon, but Flosi’s social media post made clear that airmen will now have a year to get new boots, enough time for the full force to receive at least one annual clothing allowance payment to cover the cost.
“We’re tightening up the language and adding clarity to the updated 6-inch minimum height requirement,” Flosi wrote on the post. “You now have 12 months to meet the new requirement.”
The new rule will change a July update to the service’s “Dress and Personal Appearance” regulation, AFI 36-2903. That update was aimed at curbing the wearing of shorter, so-called “sneaker style” boots with the Air Force’s camouflage uniform, known as Operational Camouflage Pattern uniforms or OCPs. Other than pilots and flight crew, most Air Force personnel wear OCPs as a daily work uniform across the service.
The July rule mandated that any boot worn with the uniform “must be between 8-12 inches in height (measured from the bottom of the heel tread to the top of the back of the boot).” The soles of boots were also capped at two inches.
But under the announcement this week, that 8-inch minimum will now be 6 inches.
“If your boots don’t meet this refined standard, you now have time to use your clothing allowance to help during the transition,” Flosi wrote.
Many commercial boots now permitted
When the 8-inch rule was announced, Flosi said the rule was targeted at getting airmen to stop wearing sneaker-style footwear at work in lieu of traditional combat-style boots. Many bootmakers have entire lines of outdoor hiking and performance shoes in flat colors aimed at military audiences, such as Salomon’s Forces Collection. As is common across most gear companies, “mid” and “low” models in that line in shoe size 9 or smaller are not 8 inches high.
But the rule drew considerable pushback online from airmen, and women in particular, who said even higher-topped combat-style boots were not 8 inches in smaller sizes common among female airmen.
The changes were among four updates the service announced to its dress and uniform standards in July. The new rules outlaw sneaker-like boots or shoes and eyelash extensions, and require all officers to keep at least one utility uniform — called the Operational Camouflage Pattern uniforms, or OCPs — in their closet. The rules also allow airmen to roll their cuffs up in long-sleeve uniforms.
