7 Best Hiking Shoes For Women

How we test hiking shoes for women

This is our process:

• We buy all women’s hiking shoes with our own money. We have no contracts with the brands, so we always write about and publish what we experience and feel.
• We do test hikes in these hiking shoes and make sure to expose them to everything, from soft loose ground and mud to rocky technical terrain and wet boulders. 
• We perform a series of tests in our lab and publish all the data. We use callipers, durometers, a smoke machine, a force gauge, and other tools to perform our standardised lab tests.
• Based on our experience and all the wear tests and lab tests we're able to select the best performers in different categories. 

Double-check: are hiking shoes exactly what you need?

Best to get this out in the open immediately. Hiking shoes are great, but we will offer scenarios here when you might want to look into different footwear. Let’s double-check, just in case:

1. Trail running shoes: if you want something very agile and flexible, this is the footwear to choose. Best to find a proper pair of trail running shoes if you like moving fast and light and if you maybe even run a few sections on the hike. 
2. Hiking boots: if you feel like your ankles need extra support, hiking boots are the best because they hug the ankles properly. Not just that, they offer more support and stability for carrying heavier loads (backpacks). 

All set with the hiking shoes? Let’s dive in. 

The difference between women’s and men’s hiking shoes 

Women and men don’t have the same feet anatomically, so it’s great when we can choose and actually buy women’s shoes, not just men’s shoes in smaller sizes. And, eventhough we know that women usually have a wider toebox and a narrower heel, brands don’t feel the same way. 

That means that it’s up to the brand to decide how they will make the shoes different. In most cases, women’s shoes are narrower than men’s. Unfortunately, sometimes it is just about the difference in length (size). 

If you’re considering buying men’s shoes, the best way to nail the size is to look at the length given in centimetres (cm) and find the size that corresponds to the length of your feet. Or, use our size charts (we have them for dozens of brands).

3 most important things to know when buying hiking shoes 

There are many things one can pay attention to when buying hiking shoes, but here we focus on 3 parent topics. Once we define them, the rest will follow: 

1. How to nail the fit 
2. Hike difficulty: light, moderate, or technical? Once this is defined, we can easily cover other features like grip, stability, and stiffness and which levels are needed for more or less demanding hikes. 
3. Season. Knowing when and in what type of weather you plan to hike will help us find the upper needed for those occasions: very breathable, quick-drying, very warm, and/or waterproof. 

Let’s start. 

How to make sure hiking shoes fit properly?

Here’s a 6-step guide we highly recommend:

1. Make sure to try the shoes on later in the day. We’re aiming for that swelling that happens naturally as the day progresses but also when we’re hiking. 
2. When trying the hiking shoes on, use the socks you plan to hike in and orthotics if you’re using them. 
3. Once the hiking shoes are all laced up, look for hot spots. The shoes should not be too tight nor too wide. We’re looking for a superb lockdown, meaning your feet should not be sliding to the sides or forward/backward on uneven terrain. And, your heel must not be slipping. 
4. If you’re trying the shoes on in a specialty store, test them on the ramp and different surfaces (cobblestone, artificial grass, etc.). These will give you the best impression of how good the lockdown is. 
5. When the fit is right, you should be able to stick your thumb behind the heel when you push your foot forward to reach the edge of the toebox.
6. The last thing to keep in mind is that many hiking shoes need to be broken in. Some might feel stiffer at first (especially the leather ones). The best advice is not to rush to a multi-day demanding hike in your new hiking shoes. Use them on a few shorter hikes first. 

Wide toebox in women’s hiking shoes: lab data

If you’re among women who need more space in the toebox, this is the best spot in the world for you. Here, we will highlight our lab data and list hiking shoes with the widest toeboxes. 

In most cases, you'll see some estimates on the width or measurements done on the outside. The downside is that those don't include (or exclude) the width of the upper, the thickness of the protective overlays, thick toe bumpers, etc. To deal with this, we came up with a unique gel formula! 

We pour the gel into the women's hiking shoe and then freeze them together! 

Once it's settled and hardened, we take it out and make calliper measurements. 

Bigger numbers on the digital calliper here tell us that the toebox is less pointy, or more foot-shaped, squareish. 

Why we make both measurements? Because there are many different shapes of toes and we want all women to be able to look for the width that they actually need in a hiking shoe. 

Those with Egyptian shapes will look for more width where the shoe is the widest, while those with Celtic and German shapes will look for more width at the big toe.

We know that having high-volume feet may also mean you need vertical room, not just horizontal. So, we measure the height of the toebox as well. 

If you already experienced pressure from the top on your toes, this is the measurement to prioritise. 

Light, moderate, or technical hiking shoes?

While there are many types of hikes: fast and light, multi-day, muddy, covering large boulders or flat rocks, etc., we realised it’s best to talk about 3 groups at first: light hiking, moderate hiking, and technical hiking. 

Look at the table below to understand how they are different and why, depending on the hike difficulty, we recommend different features: 

On our website, you can find a filter for hike difficulty and filter out the hiking shoes by them. 

Grip in women’s hiking shoes

Grip in hiking shoes depends on the: lug thickness, number of lugs and distance between them, shape and orientation of the lugs, and rubber hardness. Usually, the grippiest shoes feature very deep lugs and softer rubber. Harder rubber is more durable and protective and is usually found in hiking shoes for harder surfaces. 

Very generally speaking, women’s hiking shoes for light hiking feature lugs shallower than 3mm, moderate hiking ones 3-4mm, and hiking shoes for technical terrain have lugs deeper than 4mm. 

When looking at the durometer, it’s important to know that higher numbers indicate a harder rubber. Harder rubber offers more protection and stability and it’s usually more durable. Softer rubber gets lower numbers on the durometer and it’s more flexible, pliable, and stickier. 

The most durable hiking shoes for women

Women who want the best protection for their toes look for the most durable toeboxes. Fortunately, we test this in our lab by pressing a dremel against the toe box. This is a standardised test, meaning we always use the same force, RPMs, and time duration. 

Testing the durability of the toebox in RunRepeat lab 

Once we’re done with the dremel, we assess the damage on a 1-5 scale, where 1 is the least durable. 

Outsole durability test 

We perform the same test on the outsole, only this time, we don’t have to assess the damage. We use a tyre tread gauge to accurately measure the depth of each dent. Deeper dents indicate less durable outsoles, just like shallower dents indicate more durable ones. 

How to find stable and supportive hiking shoes 

Stable hiking shoes are usually stiffer and feel more planted. They are great for very demanding terrain, longer hikes, and especially trails covered with sharp rocks or obstacles. In these cases, stiff platforms support the feet and do not make the feet work extra to compensate for all the imbalances and twisting of hiking shoes. 

Flexible hiking shoes allow us to experience a more natural hiking feel and are great when we need to be agile and fast. But, on longer hikes, especially the ones on varying terrain and when we’re wearing a heavy backpack, it’s best to look for all the support we can get. 

Testing the longitudinal stiffness 

Stable hiking shoes usually have a: a) stiff platform, b) stiff heel counter, and c) wide platform. In our lab, we measure the longitudinal stiffness by bending the shoe to 90 degrees using a digital force gauge. When we need more force, it means the shoes are stiffer and vice versa, less force means the shoes are more flexible. 

Assessing the torsional rigidity of hiking shoes in RunRepeat lab

When the terrain is uneven, we need stability in all directions, meaning we pay attention to how stiff the platform is both longitudinally (from heel to toes) and torsionally (whether it can be twisted). We twist the shoes and assign them a 1-5 torsional rigidity rating where 5 is the most rigid. 

Assessing the stiffness of a heel counter

We also assign a 1-5 rating for heel stiffness to every hiking shoe. Stiff heel counters stabilise the heel and help with the overall supportive feel. 

And, it’s really important that the platform is on the wide side. We use a digital calliper in our lab to measure the width of the platform both at the forefoot and at the heel.  

Summer or winter hiking shoes? 

Very breathable footwear is great for summer. Very non-breathable footwear is great for winter because it traps the heat. And there are shoes that can work across many or all seasons, all you have to do is adjust the thickness of the hiking socks. 

Testing the breathability of hiking shoes in RunRepeat lab

We use a smoke machine to pump the smoke into the shoes and then we look where the smoke comes out and how fast. Watching the smoke come out (or not) allows us to assign a 1-5 breathability rating to every hiking shoe, 5 being the most breathable. 

But, we don't stop there. We examine the upper under a microscope. This allows us to understand better the breathability score as we can notice the threads that are loose or tightly packed, if there are any ventilation holes, more layers, and so on. 

Waterproof hiking shoes for women 

Women who plan to hike in wet weather, through the wet grass, in muddy areas, or when it’s raining should consider getting waterproof hiking shoes. 

These shoes are always clearly marked as waterproof (or WP), or they have a Gore-Tex (or GTX) sign on the upper, the shoe box, and/or in their name. GTX is the most popular waterproof membrane used in hiking footwear. 

However, we don't recommend buying waterproof hiking shoes if you plan to: 

• Hike in mostly dry weather, especially warm weather. Waterproof hiking shoes are not breathable 
• Experience rain or wet weather only occasionally. In this case, hiking shoes that dry fast could be a better idea as they will breathe more along the whole hike and they cost less (on average) than waterproof shoes. 

Tips for very wet and rainy weather 

Waterproof hiking shoes are great but can only do so much if your hike ends up very very wet. Here’s what we recommend: 

1. Getting waterproof hiking boots instead of shoes. More protection and you don’t need to worry whether the occasional meet and greet with the water is too deep (over your ankles). 
2. Getting waterproof gaiters They work great both with shoes and boots. They prevent the water from getting into your footwear and they protect the lower parts of the trousers as well. 
3. Remember to take care of your waterproof shoes, as the manufacturer suggested. Some uppers might need to be sprayed occasionally, others need cream/wax treatment, etc., depending on the upper material. 

Pregnancy and hiking shoes

If you’re pregnant, stability is the priority. We’ve covered this in great detail in the chapter above. Best to look for hiking shoes that have a wide and stiff platform and a great lockdown for your feet. This one can be tricky as you’d also want some room for swelling. Best to choose an upper that has some give but not too much to the point of the shoe being less stable.