The boots are commonly used for protection against Bandos followers. Wearing these boots will prevent followers of Bandos from attacking players in the God Wars Dungeon.
On the day of the release of the new hitsplats and damage soaking, there was a glitch in the knowledge database that stated that Bandos boots had damage absorption properties. This was a mistake, as the bonuses belonged to the Bandos chestplate and not the boots. This has been fixed.
The boots change their appearance slightly when sheathing and unsheathing. This can be better noticed on the customisation interface.