Best Ice Cleats

Short answer: Yes. While they’re bulky-looking and certainly won’t be an Instagram trend any time soon, they can definitely save your butt. Consumer Reports recently tested several popular ice cleat models for effectiveness.

CR tested five models that fit a men’s size 9 shoe or boot. But all are available in a range of sizes to fit your footwear.

Four models—the Kahtoolas, Sportneers, Stabils, and Yatta—offered excellent grip on ice in our lab tests. The Yaktrax, however, didn’t perform as well as the others, especially on sloped ice, because of its less aggressive hardware, according to the testers.  

They also said that ice cleats perform best when stepping firmly, which drives the tips of the metal spikes or screws into the surface of the ice, offering better grip than when stepping more gently. Users should also be careful on sloped hard surfaces such as solid rock. The spikes have nowhere to grip, making these surfaces potentially more hazardous to walk on with these devices than ice.

Finally, the spikes aren’t actually as pointy and sharp as they appear. And most come with a handy case for easy storage and to keep them from nosy pets and small children.

Testers tried three of the models running on a snowy, icy trail: Kahtoola Microspikes, the Yatta Life Heavy-Duty Trail Spikes, and the Sportneer Ice Cleats. All had incredible grip, and the testers reported that they could run at a quick pace without fear of slipping. “I easily ran up and down steep ice-covered hills with better traction than I would have on a summer day,” says Jake Fisher, a triathlete and CR’s senior director for auto testing. 

If you want very effective traction under the widest variety of ice conditions and use, all but the Yaktrax are excellent choices. The Stabil Maxx2 may be easier to use for those with limited hand strength because they don’t require you to stretch the device over a shoe—and offer the most stable feel in use, though they’re relatively heavy. The Stabil Maxx2 also doesn’t rely on elastic tension to stay on your footwear. Those with rubber harnesses may come off under some conditions (but didn’t during our testing).

Ease of use: First, testers put them on over their shoes and boots, evaluating how easy it was to do so, as well as how easy they were to remove.

Four of the five—all but the Stabil Maxx2—have rubber shoe harnesses, which are stretched over the toe and heel of the shoe or boot to hold the traction device in place. Two of them—the Sportneer and the Yatta Life—have Velcro straps that tighten over the midfoot to hold the sides of the harness more firmly in place. The Stabil Maxx2 uses a sole plate with a raised edge and Velcro straps to position itself on the footwear.

Using the rubber shoe harnesses requires sitting down and stretching them over the shoes, which may be difficult for those with hand strength issues. The Stabil is attached with just Velcro, which is easier to use but results in a looser connection to footwear, because its sole plate is rigid and because the sole plate may be larger than the soles of either the shoes or boots used.

All were easy to remove; wearing gloves while doing so made it marginally harder. But once in place, all of the models remained on the shoes or boots and didn’t interfere with removing or putting on the footwear.