Thanks for all the chatter created by my little video project. It's interesting to hear all the comments.

I have no doubt you can walk your shoes dry in spring conditions. I've certainly done that but doing so does seem to cause my lightweight (and even old leather boots) shoes to wear out quicker. Nevertheless, if I was doing ten crossings a day I might choose to just leave my shoes on also.

I do some ski mountaineering in the Pacific Northwest winter and I could not imagine doing a river ford in my leather ski boots on the way into the backcoountry. It would just make for a miserable weekend as I ascend into the snow zone. It's like no matter how many down coats I have on if my feet are cold I'm uncomfortable.

Part of what's missing in this discussion for me is all the other reasons to have water socks along. My nylon water socks only weigh a half pound (size XL) total and they have lots of other uses. I like to bath daily when I hike and water socks are great for bathing. You can walk around in the river without danger of loosing your footwear like Crocs which tend to get pulled off in fast current or muck. When I bath in a lake I often have to walk through a lot of muck which sucks other footwear off my feet. If I decide to swim the water socks stay snuggly on my feet also. I have found them to be very useful regardless of river fording.