Fashionable boots for women may have all the variations seen in other women's shoes: tapered or spike heels, platform soles, pointed toes, zipper closures, etc.

Specialty boots have been designed for many different types of sport, particularly football or soccer, riding, skiing and snowboarding, and skating.

Boots have their own devotees among shoe fetishists and foot fetishists.

Tall boots, such as those designed for horseback riding, may have a tab, loop or handle at the top known as a bootstrap, allowing one to use fingers or a tool to provide better leverage in getting the boots on. A German legend about a boy lifting himself up by his bootstraps into the air, allowing him to fly, has led to the word's metaphorical use in many different contexts; see bootstrapping and booting.

Boots, particularly those worn as protective footwear by workers (work boots), have a reputation for being as hard-wearing as their owners, hence the expression "tough as old boots".