What Winter Clothes do I Need for Boston?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hi fellow SDMB members! Let this be my belated 10 year anniversary post. Thanks for all the threads!

Now for my problem…

I moved to Boston in September for grad school. It’s going all right, but winter is coming and being a California boy, I have no idea what to do about it. So, can anyone with a kind heart give me some advice or links or price ranges or whatever on what I should buy? Like, where’s a good place to buy a coat/some boots/gloves? How much should I pay?

How bad is the New England winter, really?

Thanks again!

2

New England weather is wonderful, then it sucks, then it’s good again, then it gets worse than before, then better…

That’s a typical morning. The rest of the day the weather varies much more than that.

3

You can buy outerwear at any place you’d buy any other clothes-- K-mart or Wal-mart will do fine. In addition to a winter coat, you’ll also need a knit hat and a pair of gloves or mittens, plus possibly a scarf.

Under the coat, you’ll probably want to have long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, with an undershirt. I generally find that both jeans and long-sleeved flannels run around $15 each.

4

Well, I live in Mpls which has a much colder winter than Boston and here’s what I get by with.

Lined hoody. I can wear this most days and be fairly comfortable. If I need a bit more I put on this line Dickeys jacket I got at Target a few years ago. These two jackets work for 90% of the temps we get.

When it gets a bit colder, say under 7, I’ll wear my flight. In my 45 years of living here and in Northern WI this is the single warmest jacket I’ve ever owned. With the flight I always wear a scarf because this jacket is terrible at keeping wind from blowing down your front.

And a hat! Amazing how many people I see outside in the winter without a hat. They’ll wear ear muffs but amazingly no freaking hat.

Boston is warmer but perhaps this will give you somewhere to start.

5

I live in Chicago, and will never forget the semester in Leningrad when my classmate, the Berkeley student from St. Thomas, showed us the fleece jacket and high-top sneakers he’d brought to Russia as his winter gear. Needless to say, we took him shopping.

IMHO a down jacket is the way to go. Thinsulate just never feels as warm. Mine is from L.L. Bean, and I love it. It’s worth spending a bit more for the good stuff that holds up over time and doesn’t leak feathers. Also, make sure whatever boots you buy are a) insulated and b) waterproof. Wool socks are good, too. And I never walk out in the winter without a scarf, hat, and mittens. Most of my winter gear comes form Land’s End and L.L. Bean - buy the basics before winter hits, but you can catch the after-Christmas sales for extra wool sweaters and that kind of thing.

6

Last winter was very bad. We had snow storms weekly for a while there, and it just hung around for many months.

Do you have a car or will you be commuting by T? I dress a lot warmer on the days I’ll be waiting at the train station for indefinite amounts of time.

7

Depends on how much you’ll be outside. If you will be using the T or only be outside for brief periods of time, you can get away with a lighter jacket, a hat and maybe gloves. But if you anticipate long walks outside in blizzards, you might want to get a mad bomber hat.

In all honesty, though - try to see if there is a local salvation army location and check them out for jackets and what-not. Especially if you are in grad school, money is probably tight, and you can at least get something to try out without having to spend a lot of money on it. And it’s not necessarily low-end quality stuff they have there, either.

But as others have mentioned - LL Bean and Lands End are two clothing outfits that people in this area are very familiar with.

8

That’s a great idea. There are several locations for the shop Boomerangs, and all the proceeds benefit AIDS Action, if you’re into supporting that cause. They get plenty of new stuff in addition to previously owned.

9

If you plan on walking near the Charles, or on a bridge across it, be advised that it’s like a wind tunnel – there’s nothing to block the winf as it roars along. it was so fierce that it forced them to put revolving doors on the Green Building at MIT (something enshrined in Walker’s Flying Circus of Physics) and, rumor has it, it responsible for Alexander Calder’s giant Stabile The Great Sail being between the Green Building and the river – it’s there to block the wind.
For occasions like that, you need facial protection, either from a ski mask, a scarf, or a hood that extends well past your face.
In town, the buildings blck the wind. Temoeratures in the winter range from what-the-hell-this-is-supposed-to-be-winter to subzero, and it’s impossible to predict what you’re going to get. Count on below freezing for days at a time, with at least one day approaching zero. Most of the time, though, it’ll be in the thirties. You will definitely need a well-insulated winter coat, gloves, and head covering. Dress in layers.

10

If you’re the type of person who is addicted to their phone (and really, who isn’t these days?), you should consider getting a pair of gloves designed for phone use. There are some gloves that have fingertip flaps, making it much easier to push dem buttons while still keeping your hands warm.

Good waterproof boots are also a necessity. Even if we don’t get a whole lot of snow, the plows just push it all onto the sidewalks. Once it gets warm enough to melt, there will be several weeks in which the sidewalks will be covered with nasty, slippery brown sludge.

11

With so much variability I wonder if it wouldn’t be wise to do what I did (unintentionally) – that is, buy TWO heavy outergarments. I have a parka* AND an overcoat, and the overcoat is big enough to fit over the parka. Wearing both along with a hat and gloves is quite toasty yet provides an option of shedding layers if needed. Whereas if the weather’s in one of those moods where it gives you fake hopes of an early spring you can just wear one :slight_smile:

I don’t remember how much a parka costs these days, but my overcoat was $100. The overcoat looks a lot better than the parka, which is partially why I bought it – plus it’s button-down rather than zippery and I hate it when zippers break.

  • But sans hood. I’m not sure of the name for a parka-like winter coat without a hood.
12

I moved to Chicago from a place without a real winter, so I know exactly how you feel now–you want to get your plan together before game time. But really you’ll figure it out as you go from just seeing what other people wear and shopping at your usual places (the Gap (or whatever) in Boston carries different stuff than the ones in California). The nice thing about winter is that it’s not like you wake up one day and it’s -10 with snow 3’ deep–first it’s 60 then 50 then 40 etc. etc.

Now for some practical advice:

  1. I have three levels of outerwear–light jackets, medium jackets, and heavy jackets. And I have dressy, casual, and active versions of each of those.

  2. I just keep adding stuff as it gets colder–in the coldest months I get dressed upstairs then basically get dressed downstairs as well. So, to the usual shirt and pants, I first add a light jacket, then switch to a medium jacket (I will have started wearing a wool hat at some point as well), then add scarf and gloves, then switch to the heavy jacket, then add stuff until I get the full regalia mentioned below.

  3. I think that shoes and hats are really the most important. I walk a couple of miles outside every day (even in the dead of winter), so I have waterproof boots with fuzzy insides and all manner of head covering. When it’s coldest I’ll wear a scarf under my coat, a balaclava, a wool hat, and a hooded coat. I’ve thought about wearing ski goggles or something on some really wind days but I’m sure I would look (more?) fucking ridiculous.

  4. I think the best maker of nice coats around is Burberry–they are expensive but absolutely worth it. For active stuff I use The North Face.

13

There are also gloves with some magic alien technology or something in the fingertips so you can use the phone with a gloved finger.

14

You may wish to buy boots, or at the very least, galoshes.

What everyone has said about hats, scarves, coats, gloves, etc., is very true. But when you step off the sidewalk and the ice breaks through and you’re a foot deep in slush, you’ll thank me.

15

The short answer - all of them.

16

The Davis Square Goodwill in Somerville is an awesome place to stock up on good quality winter gear (or any gear, for that matter) for ridiculously low prices.

17

According to my Californian dormmate back in college, it’s bad. Frequently exclaiming “how can you people stand this??” level bad.

Despite being a New Englander since birth, I hate being cold so I’ll give you some pointers.

If money is an issue, your coat is what you want to buy new since the lining deteriorates over time. Get one long enough to cover your whole butt, not a waist length jacket. Ones that allow you to adjust the tight/looseness of the waist are best, because while you’ll want it loose enough for a heavy sweater to fit under it, you don’t want it hanging off you. Extra airspace between you and the coat makes you colder.

GoodWill and the like will have tons of sweaters, often brand new from donations of overstock by LL Beans. You’ll want sweaters in different weights. From Halloween to around Christmas, and then from sometime in March until it finally hits the 50s, you’ll be happy in light weight sweaters. For the rest of the winter you’ll want heavier sweaters, and make sure they’re loose enough to slip another layer under it, be it a t-shirt, or thermal underwear, or under armour because it’s often too cold for a sweater alone to be warm enough.

If your current jeans are not warm enough, there are two options. The first is to replace them with flannel-lined jeans. The second is thermal underwear under them too. Both thermal tops and bottoms are sold in the underwear departments of stores, and they should already be there in Boston stores since they’re in stock here. With slacks, you’re pretty much stuck with thermal bottoms under them since lined slacks are not commonplace.

You need hats and gloves. If you have to do any shoveling, make sure you buy several pairs of gloves, so you change them when they get wet - they take a long time to dry. A scarf might or might not be useful to you. If you’re going to be shoveling, or walking by the water, or just spending a lot of time outside in general, I’d pick one up.

They sell boots that are thermal-lined, usually leather. You might want them. Those, coupled with thick socks help keep your feet warm, even if you need to trudge through snow and slush.

18

Good. Just don’t hang around high schools, or else you’ll be wearing jeans and T-shirts in F weather in the teens. Damned kids. Nothing new to add – you probably have everything you need, but long-johns are a nice thing to have. Obviously, a hat, and, less obviously, gloves. Boston is not that dire – just dress for cold – hat, gloves, warm coat, and make sure your shoes/boots can hack getting moisture on the outside. If your shoes don’t work, maybe get some SealSkinz (essentially Goretex kind-of socks). You will need good traction for the ice – take it from someone who knows – a fall on the ice can eff your face up pretty good. Good running shoes or hiking shoes should be fine.

ETA you also need to know HOW to walk correctly on slick sidewalks/streets – it’s kind of an art. You want to keep moving, but not fall face-forward into a fire hydrant (again, experience). Plant your feet firmly at each step and don’t go until you know it’s cool.

19

In my experience, the most important thing is a pair of warm boots that will actually keep your feet dry. Nothing will make you more miserable than cold, wet feet - and the only way to get them dry and un-miserable is to change your shoes and socks and then wait while they warm up.

Also: Wool is your friend.

20

REI sells some nice winter outerwear. I like long down coats with a hood.