I wear uninsulated rubber LaCrosse hip boots in the style "Marsh 32"". They cost around $110.00 or so I believe. I typically wear out the soles on two pairs per year. I fish a lot, so this is understandable. I never fold them down to avoid cracking; I dry them by hanging them up by the straps. I never use the laces on the inside of the boot that are just below the knee.
Many years ago I bought a pair of breathable hip boots (booty type) and wading shoes.
Here's what I didn't like about them:
1. Even in reasonably warm weather they were too cold. I found myself wearing long-johns on cool October mornings, then I'd have to take the long-johns off later in the day so as to not overheat.
2. Compared to rubber hip boots, they offer little protection from rattlesnakes. Yes, I realize rattlesnake fangs would probably go through rubber hip boots like warm butter, but at least hip boots have a lot of air space between boot and flesh, which increases the odds of the fangs not hitting meat.
3. While playing trout up to my feet I always had to worry about getting the treble hook in my boots, thus creating a hole. With hip boots I don't need to worry about this.
4. While playing trout up to my feet I often got the treble hook caught in the laces of the boots or on the canvas of the boot itself. Talk about a pain in the ...
5. My feet always felt wet in the booties even though they were not wet.
6. The laces often became untied all by themselves.
7. Patching breathable waders is not as easy as patching rubber boots. I never successfully patched mine. The experiment was over anyway as far as I was concerned.
8. When fishing small streams, most of which have multiflora roses growing along them, I always worried about tearing them or puncturing them, which is much easier to do than ripping hip boots.
9. I couldn't stick my rod down in the top of the right boot like I do with hip boots when re-tying my spinner or unwrapping the line from around my rod tip.
10. I couldn't stick a small towel down the left boot like I do with hip boots since it was too tight.
11. I couldn't stick a no-longer-needed sweatshirt down my boot like I often do with hip boots.
12. I found it impossible to keep the sand out of my wading shoes, which quickly ruins the booties.
13. I didn't find them all that much lighter than hip boots since the wading shoes were heavy.
14. They were much more expensive than hip boots and the wading shoes wore out just as quickly as the soles of my hip boots.
15. The wading shoes were felt-bottomed and wore out within about ten outings. I walk a lot.
16. The wading shoes soles (after the felt wore off) were much more slippery than the LaCrosse rubber hip boot soles. LaCrosse uses a soft rubber which almost sticks to rocks -- sort of like felt.
17. Breathable waders took a lot more care than hip boots. I found myself rinsing the waders and the boots after each use. What a waste of time.
18. The pair I had were Orvis brand and were dark green. This was good. However, most breathable waders are very light in color and I wouldn't be caught dead wearing boots that bright when fishing for wild trout, which is what I mostly do.
19. They dripped a lot more than hip boots after I took them off for the drive home. The back of my SUV got wet. Also, while driving between streams during a day of fishing a lot of water drained onto my floor mat.
20. I didn't find walking in the wading shoes to be very comfortable. My hip boots fit like a glove and don't bother my feet even after a two-hour hike in 80-degrees air.
21. An extra pair of socks made the wading boots too tight.
22. I recall a time or two in the winter when I couldn't untie the boot laces because they were frozen solid.
23. Although it wasn't a concern during my experiment, I believe ticks would be a lot more likely to crawl up breathable waders than rubber hip boots.
24. And last but not least, they made me look too much like a fly fisherman.