I live in the upper Midwest, which is known for its horrible winters (from time to time anyway). My townhouse association does a crappy job at clearing off the ice that forms after the snow in the driveway is plowed, which can make it treacherous (to say the least) to bring the dog out, or walk down to the mailboxes in the winter. I have used these for a couple of years now and they do a great job of providing traction. I have found that they fit over a pair of sneakers a lot better than they do over a pair of boots, even relatively small boots. Putting them on sneakers is actually fine since it is really only when there is no snow on the ground to provide traction that makes it really hard to walk. Meaning, when there is a layer of ice, you are not walking through deep snow so wearing sneakers is doable. The one pair of boots that I have that these do fit on has little to no grip when it is very icy out and it does work well on those. So, they can fit over a shoe or a pair of hiking boots pretty easily without the straps that come with them. If you have a pair of large boots (like Sorel boots) then you will need to get this a size or two larger than what your actual shoe size would indicate you need. I definitely recommend them if you live in a place that gets a lot of snow and/or ice in the winter, especially if you go hiking in the winter.
