Gaiters are pieces of clothing worn over the shoe and lower pants leg, and utilized basically as private defensive hardware; comparable articles of clothing utilized fundamentally for the show are altercations. Initially, gaiters were made of cowhide or material. Today, gaiters for strolling are regularly made of plasticized manufactured fabric like polyester. Gaiters for use riding a horse keep on being made of calfskin. Gaiters are a kind of defensive dress for an individual's lower legs and legs underneath the knee. Gaiters are worn when strolling, climbing, running (particularly orienteering and rogaining) outside among thick underbrush or in snow, with or without snowshoes. Weighty gaiters are frequently worn when utilizing crampons, to shield the leg and lower leg from the spikes of the contrary foot. Gaiters lash over the climbing boot and around the individual's leg to give insurance from branches and thistles and to forestall mud, snow, and so on from entering the highest point of the boot. Gaiters may likewise be worn as security against snake chomps.

Gaiters fill a similar capacity as puttees, a piece of various military garbs. Gaiters are known as jambieres (got from the French word jambe for legs, thus tights) were important for the uniform of Zouave infantry regiments.