Customer Reviews Columbia Fairbanks™ Omni-Heat™

I like the boot quite a bit. Comfort is great, and it is quite waterproof. My issue is that the suede like material can be a bit cheap. The tongue on the back for pulling the shoe up snapped on both of my shoes within the first month.

These boots are very comfortable. I bought them for work. I deliver 5 gallon water bottles, and for the a few weeks in the winter they were great. After a few weeks my feet became very soggy. It would seem that whatever is used to ventilate these boots is getting clogged with sweat/salt. The boots no longer breathes and I had some seriously funky boot smell going on. I would argue that these are not even suitable for hiking either. The boots will probably shine sitting in an open arena/stadium in the winter.

Right off the bat you can tell that shoe making isn't Columbia's forte. The boot looks nice online and will definitely keep ypur feet warm, but that is where the pros end. The cons are that it is very clunky and not formed to fit your foot. I would shop a size down from what you usually wear. I bought my normal shoe size and where thick wool socks while wearing these boots and they still feel big and clunky. There is no arch support, dosen't bother me, but might others. Lastly the annoying pull tab in the back is a flap of leather that is just small enough to be ineffective. Tread on the boot is adequate, not the best, but not the worst.

Pros: Great design, material, comfort. Cons: Started to split from soul within a week, glue showing on top of toe, lace holes don't go up quite high enough which makes it really tight at the crease of your foot and shin.

The fit is acceptable but they're not waterproof. Moisture comes down through the top, around the tongue or the eyelets.

This boots look good and seem to be of good quality, however in the middle of the shoe seens there is a bump that makes it uncomfortable to the feet. I dont know if it was just the pair I bought or if they are all the same since I returned them and did not reorder another. Also, they are tight on the front side but, I do have wide feet so...

The good: Modern look Performance seems good so far, try it at snow but just at a tube snow play park. It was not tat much snow and around 40F The very bad: The sound the boots does while walking, "squish squish" You could see glue coming out from the welt I sepend some time looking for boots and this where the best option base in my budget, but the noise they make while walking really stress me out. It may be that it's a problem with my boot only, but is already use so I don't think Columbia will send me another.

My shoe size is exactly 12 (11.25" / 28.6CM / Euro 45) and these were a bit too small. Not sure if I will exchange for size 13, as they do not do half-sizes after size 12.

I read many good reviews and hoped for the best. Shoes are warm (haven't tested in snow yet) and definitely light weight, but the soles are very thin. Oddly, so - I can feel pebbles/rocks when just walking. I don't think I'll hike in these. Boots have a wide fit as well so I'm using a 3rd party insert for additional comfort and support. These do not feel nearly as substantial as my previous Bugaboos.

This shoe looks nice and appears that it would be waterproof and warm as described. However, it was at least one full size too small, and extremely narrow. I could barely get my foot inside. If there was a petite size description for men's shoes, this would be one that qualifies.

I have the non-insulated, low cut style of the Fairbanks. The Omni-Heat layer removes at least a half size. I normally wear a 12, unfortunately there are no half sizes in larger sizes, so I have to go to a 13. It feels a little too big, but better than way too small.

Pros: Stylish sneaker-boot look. Grippy soles. Insulated interior. Decent construction. Did I mention they look good? Cons: NOT waterproof. Not water resistant. Run very narrow. Wanted a pair of boots for snow season in NYC and found these. I was skeptical about the mesh upper being waterproof, it looked like material of a running shoe. Anyway, I did a test before taking them out by running a cup of water over the mesh. Put my hand inside the shoe and it felt damp. I thought it was normal. The next day it snowed less than an inch and I thought I'd be safe in these. Wrong. Took my shoes off when I got home and my feet were moist and the insole was wet. Not even one inch of snow.........

I honestly really like these boots, they are super comfortable and I like the look of them however, the left boot makes a really annoying fart noise when I walk. I have tried everything, even spent money on insoles and they still make the noise. It's to the point where I don't where them any more because I feel like the noise got worse in just a couple of months of use.

Even though my feets are narrow, but still the boots are tight even I wear most of the time 9.5 size!

ordered wide and half size larger and the fit was still way too small.

Shoes are not waterproof! Walking through light rain/slush my toes were soaked after 30 minutes resulting in an uncomfortable and cold experience. Based on my experience, I can not recommend these shoes.

Decent fit. But as I now discover in the many reviews the CLICK! Left boot makes annoying click sound with every step. Like SO MANY others stated. I tracked this down to the heel. The inside lining seems to come unglued from the outer part. Results in a annoying clicking feel and loud sound with each step. No idea how to fix? Any suggestions COLUMBIA? Please advise.. Heres the deal. With this many complaints on a specific defect how is columbia still selling them? I should have known better from reading the reviews. The fit is fine for me. But the defect is an annoying one.

nice looking winter boot, fits tight and wide is the widest one they have.

These run oddly small yet a a larger size would be way too big. I'm always a 10-10.5 but these pushed really hard on my toes. Yet a larger size 11 just falls right off my foot. Strange sizing on these.

I am a female and I usually wear a women's wide just fine. Every now and then I will wear a men's 7 1/2 or eight which coincides with my foot size/width. I wanted an extra wide snow boot so I could wear a nice thick sock and it would not bother my wide foot. I ordered this in a 7.5 wide thinking it would be the perfect solution. It was so narrow! It fit more like a women's standard width. That is just completely unacceptable given the fact that it is a men's wide which should be like a women's extra wide. Anyway, I thought about going up a size but then I would have probably 2 inches of extra space in front of my toe so I did not. Columbia, please make these for people with an actual wide foot.

Cool Look, Not Size; really like the design of the boot and it felt warm but runs so small! Wide is NOT wide. It's still pretty narrow. The material seems top notch and it feels like wearing a tent on my feet. But couldn't wear these for my normal size and wasn't about to buy an entire size up to get the gif right. Went to another company and another boot

These boots are comfortable, lightweight, and pretty warm, but after one season of normal to light use they are failing in several areas. They are not water proof, the stitching is failing in several places, and most importantly the sole is separating from the boot on both the left and right side of both boots, right where the toes meet the foot and bend. I liked these boots very much for the first few weeks, but can now confidently say that I regret my purchase.

The toe guard needs to be thicker. It Collapses and won't pop back out without taking the boot off and pop it back out with your finger from the inside. Otherwise warm and light.

Nice looking and fits well but not water proof....

They are a good looking boot but they run small and for being a wide size they aren't very wide