Mukluk

Mukluks[1] or kamik (Inuktitut: ᑲᒥᒃ [kaˈmik][2]) (singular: ᑲᒪᒃ kamak, plural: ᑲᒦᑦ kamiit) are soft boots, traditionally made of reindeer (caribou) skin or sealskin, and worn by Indigenous Arctic peoples, including Inuit, Iñupiat, and Yup'ik.

Soft-soled boots, of similar materials (mostly sealskin and caribou-skin) and designs, but with local variations, are traditionally worn in the Arctic and subarctic areas.

[citation needed] Another type has a soft leather sole, but the upper is knitted out of wool or a wool-rayon blend.

After a season's storage, traditional skin kamiks tend to stiffen and need to be worked and stretched to make them pliable again.

Kamiks for warm, slushy, muddy, or open-ocean conditions are finely stitched from waterproof sealskin (see illustration above).

[11] The short overshoes may also be made waterproof for wet conditions,[11] or furry with more grip for dry terrain.

The design of the mukluk is used for the industrial manufacture of some other cold-weather boots, especially paired with a rugged contemporary sole.

Their bulkiness, paired with their poor performance in slush (they keep snow out, but water quickly soaks through[dubious – discuss]), makes them less ideal for the casual winter wearer.

The skins may be bleached in the sun, and for summer kamik, they are generally scraped clean of fur to allow watertight stitching.

[11] Blind-stitching (not piercing the full depth of the skin) with sinew, which shrinks when wet, helps keep mukluks watertight.