Hiking is a great way to get in shape or stay in shape while you enjoy the wonderful outdoors.  Whether you are someone who just likes to get out and take a stroll or treks 1000 miles a year, you will want some good comfortable boots.  Being comfortable is essential to enjoying the experience and doing it more often.  The staff at Sportsman’s News has taken some of the best known brands of mid-level hikers available at Sportsman’s Warehouse to task.  Over the past few months of hiking, scouting, and day to day use we have used many different brands and models and these are the ones that are standouts and will be used for the remainder of the year.
It is very important to understand that your feet are your wheels and once you have a bad wheel, you are going to be slowed down or completely stopped.  A good set of tires isn’t cheap and neither are a good set of boots.  The boots that we tested and chose to be the best ranged between $120.00 and $175.00 a pair.  Each person on our team spends close to half of the entire year in the field which equates out to about a dollar a day for your boots.  We feel that this is very economical and should be a formula you use when buying your next pair of boots.  We are extremely hard on our equipment and a lot of these types of boots are worn every day  as well as in the field.

Vasque Wasatch GTX

Vasque Wasatch GTX
This boot is a full leather upper and weighs in at 3.3 pounds for our size 10 medium width test models.  This is a little heavy, but to be expected with a full leather boot.  We have had the benefit of beating this boot up for over a full year now because it is one of our team member’s absolute favorite boots for all around use.  The full leather upper is just over the ankle and high enough to give you some excellent support for even heavy loads (50 plus pounds).  The Vibram® soles are very soft and grab rocks extremely well even when wet.  The GTX in the name stands for Gore-Tex® and is the standard for breathability and waterproof in the same breath.  These boots are extremely waterproof and as they age, a little sno-seal keeps them fresh for years to come.  Anyone with high arches will love this boot and without aftermarket arch supports.  There is a pair in the office with over 750 miles that appear to have many more miles left in them.  Some on line searches revealed a few people complaining about cracking in the soles, but so far we haven’t seen this problem with several different pairs in the field daily.  These boots ran very true to size.  This is one of the best boots available at Sportsman’s Warehouse in this category in our opinion.

Merrell Perimeter GTX

Merrell Perimeter GTX

This boot is fairly light weight for a full leather upper style boot weighing in at 3.1 pounds for a size 10 medium width boot.  The full leather upper provides good support for heavy loads and comes up over the ankle. The shoe does fit a little narrow and smaller than was sized so fitting this boot is very important.  Online searches showed many people with similar types of problems and it wasn’t consistently large or small.  However, once you get the proper fit boot, you will be very happy with this boots performance.  This is also a Gore-tex® lined boot and is extremely waterproof.  On one of our test days, the area that we searched for sheds had a couple of inches of water all over the ground.  We spent the entire day in water and stayed completely dry.   The Vibram® soles grip extremely well in most conditions, but found that on some of the extreme hard granite type of rocks with heavy loads, we lost some of the lugs in the sole.  It didn’t hinder the performance of the boot, but needed to be noted.  The roller bearing lace ups are a very unique system.  It makes pulling the laces tight effortless, but it does have one drawback.  If you pull your laces all the way out, it is very difficult to get them rethreaded into the laces and impossible if the plastic ends have come off.  The rubber rand toe cap is extremely durable and makes these boots wear like iron.  A light polish after two hard months of use and they looked nearly new.  This is a great boot.

Keen Targhee II

Keen Targhee II
This boot is the light weight in the group tested.  It only tips the scale at 2.0 pounds for a pair of size 10’s.  They are extremely comfortable with a big round toe box.  These boots ran a little on the small size and it is recommended that you try them on prior to purchase.  Although these are in the mid category, they don’t go up and over the ankle, so they aren’t recommended for carrying a heavy load.  However, if you spend your time on moderate terrain or just trails and day to day light hiking, this is definitely the boot for you.  Instead of Gore-tex®, Keen has developed a waterproof material called KEEN.DRY™ which does a great job of waterproofing, but doesn’t breathe quite as good as some of the other models tested.  If you do get your boots wet, you will want a PEET shoe dryer available.  These boots are very tough to get dry once they have been soaked.  The soles on these boots worked extremely well and wear like iron.  However, on wet off trail surfaces, they were a little on the slick side. Our team is extremely hard on gear and this boot isn’t built for the extreme user, but the trail hiker that wants a lightweight boot that is extremely comfortable is making the right choice with this boot.

Danner 453 GTX Hiker

Danner 453 GTX Hiker

Danner has been one of our company favorites for many years and probably the most comfortable out of the box boot we have tested.  If you forgot your boots and need to swing into Sportsman’s Warehouse for a great pair of boots, you won’t go wrong with the 453 hikers.  They fit to size and the same has been said on all on line searches that we reviewed.  Our tester on this current boot was Toby Pugh who is a Sportsman’s News pro staffer and career contractor.  He can beat some stuff up and is a great resource for testing stuff seven days a week.  These boots weigh in right at 3 pounds.  They are leather upper and provide great support for loads.  They are 5.5 inches tall, which brings them right up to the ankle providing sufficient support, but not cutting into the ankle on extreme uphill or downhill hikes.  They are Gore-tex® lined and extremely waterproof.  Even a pair that has been used by the office staff for an estimated 1500 miles is still waterproof.  The TFX Outsole is a great gripping piece of rubber and performed excellent in every situation and performed especially well when wet.   The rubber rand around the toe is a great addition to the boot which keeps the wear and tear to a minimum in that area.  The only negative that can be said about this boot is the leather appears to be a little soft and after only a few outings, they looked fairly worn everywhere except where the rubber rand is covering.  It didn’t affect the functionality at all and the old pair here in the office is still going strong.  So, it is just an appearance issue.  Overall, this is a great boot and was compared to wearing a pair of Nike Air running shoes out of the box.

Lacross Extreme Tough

Lacross Extreme Tough
Although these boots weren’t what I would consider a major type of hiking boot, it does deserve mention in this category for the guys that walk many miles each day on the job and is extremely tough on footwear.  This would qualify as more of a hiker/work boot hybrid and who better to test it out than our Pro Staff contractor Toby Pugh.  These boots weigh in at 3.8 pounds per pair which is extremely light for a steel toe style boot with full leather uppers.  Toby says that steel toe boots traditionally hurt his feet where the steel and the regular leather come together and right where your toe bends.  This isn’t the case with the Lacross models.  The most important thing to mention with this product is the Kevlar type coating which is absolutely the most impressive wearing material we have ever seen.  Walking the lava fields of southern Utah and hunting shed antlers in the sage brush is a true test to any kind of leather.  The boots look as if they have come right out of the box after two full months of wear. This material is resistant to oil, gas, and many other types of chemicals.  They are built with a Hyper-Dri® barrier which is the Lacross version of Gore-tex® and performs extremely well.  Standing in water for a full hour proved that this waterproof barrier is top notch.  These boots tend to run a little bit larger in size so they should be worn prior to purchase.  The soles are designed more as a work style boot than an aggressive hiking tread, but they will get the job done.  Toby says, “Best work boot I’ve ever owned”.

Each of these boots has their own special place for each one of our team members.  We have beat every pair up extremely hard and the cream has risen to the top.  If you will pick a boot from this testing that fits the application and type of activity you are looking to do, you won’t be disappointed.

PEET Shoe Dryer

One special product that needs special mention that is very important in our testing is the PEET electric dryer.  We get every one of these boots wet to see how easily they dry and some dry quicker than others.  Boots that get worn daily and get wet or just sweaty, need to be dried out each and every night to provide you with the most comfortable footwear.  The PEET dryer is lightweight and quickly dries any shoes.  It eliminates the days of stuffing newspapers into your shoes and waiting days for your shoes to dry.  It doesn’t make noise or blow hot air.  It dries gear naturally, with gentle thermal convection.  Dry shoes each and every morning can be achieved when you own a PEET electric dryer.

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