These heavy-duty work Boots provide the best available foot armor in RUST.
However, as you are incredibly unlikely to be shot in the foot, this makes filling an armor slot with boots is not as crucial as it may seem.
The real advantage of boots is the added cold and radiation protection.
Cold protection is also helpful to help offset the negative cold resistance found on any armor made from Metal Fragments.
Since the boot’s armor values are not substantial, you can often get away with crafting the much cheaper Hide Boots or Burlap Shoes.
However, hide boots don’t look anywhere near as cool as a nicely skinned set of proper boots.