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The Top Footwear on the Appalachian Trail: 2024 Thru-Hiker Survey
The third installment of the AT 2024 Survey is here, and this time we’re covering all things footwear. What you wear on your feet is one of the most personal gear choices you’ll make for a long hike, as everyone’s feet are different. Foot health and comfort are essential to an enjoyable journey, so it’s worth it for each individual to look around for what fits best. However, there are still common styles, brands, and models among hikers.
There was a major upset in this year’s ranking, with the longstanding top shoe brand giving way to an emerging brand. Keep reading to find out who the new top dog is!
This year we collected 389 responses — a huge thanks to everyone who filled out the survey! The data was collected from October through November of 2024 through our survey, which was marketed using our social media platforms, Backpacker Radio, and TheTrek.co. Some responses from previous years were removed, and obvious mistakes in start and end dates were adjusted. No obvious duplicates were found.
Footwear Style
The overwhelming majority of hikers prefer trail runners compared to other types of footwear. This has been the case year after year — even 10 years ago, when we first started surveying hikers’ gear preferences, trail runners dominated the rankings, and their popularity has grown dramatically since then.
80% of hikers started in trail runners this year, while 86% wore them for the majority of their hike. (Suggesting, in other words, that 6% of hikers started in boots or another type of footwear and quickly decided to switch to trail runners).
The numbers for those hiking in boots tend to sway in the opposite direction: 12% started in hiking boots this year, but that number shrunk to just 6% sticking with boots for the majority of their hike.
The trend towards trail runners has definitely increased over the last decade, although it’s become more stable in the last few years. There’s not much more room for trail runners to grow in popularity, which is likely what’s leading to the stabilization.
This year, the percentage of hikers wearing trail runners did drop somewhat to 86% from last year’s 91%. In turn, hikers wearing boots for the majority of their hike increased to 6% from last year’s 4%.
Satisfaction
| Footwear type | Average satisfaction rating out of 10 |
|---|---|
| Trail runners | 8.48 |
| Hiking shoes/low top | 8.36 |
| Hiking boots | 6.73 |
This year we asked hikers to rank their satisfaction with gear choices on a 1-10 scale, a slight tweak from how we’ve measured satisfaction in the past. This is the first place you’ll see that change, but expect the 1-10 satisfaction scale to crop up again as we get deeper into the survey.
Hikers who started in trail runners were overall very satisfied with their choice. Over half gave them the maximum score of 10. You can see the distribution for each shoe type in the chart above.
The average ratings of each type are also shown in the table above, which demonstrates substantially lower satisfaction rating for hiking boots. It should be noted, though, that there is a much higher sample size of trail runners compared to the other footwear types. One poor rating can skew the results with a small sample size.
Changes in Footwear Style
We asked hikers about the reasons that caused them to change their footwear. Besides shoes simply wearing out, the most common reason was fit issues, pain, and/or blisters. Feet becoming swollen and needing a larger size was the next most common reason. Zero drop not working out was mentioned multiple times, and logistical reasons were cited in some of the “other” responses.
Replacements
5 was the most common number of shoe pairs hikers went through this year. This is similar to previous years and means hikers are swapping shoes roughly every 400 miles.
For those wearing hiking boots specifically, 4 was the most common number of pairs used — although users who went through 3 and 5 pairs of boots, respectively, were not far behind. This does support the notion that boots are more durable than trail runners, although the difference is not dramatic.
Replacement shoes are an easily overlooked expense for thru-hikers. Hiking footwear typically costs somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 per pair, so budget about $600 – $750 for footwear over the course of your trek.
Top Footwear on the Appalachian Trail: Brands and Models
We asked hikers about their favorite brands and models of footwear, as we do every year. For the top brands, the reigning number-one spot that Altra has held since 2018 has been taken over by a brand that has ballooned in popularity over the last couple of years.
Topo Athletic is the new top brand this year, although the Altra Lone Peak still held the number one model position. The Hoka Speedgoat, which has risen in popularity in recent years, trails the Lone Peak not-so-distantly as the second most popular individual model.
The top brands are listed in order below with some of their popular models, and a more in-depth table of the top models follows. Worn by 13 hikers in this year’s survey, the Merrell Moab was the only hiking shoe/boot among the top-ranking models.
Top Footwear by Brand
| Rank | Brand | Responses |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Topo Athletic | 116 |
| 2 | Altra | 110 |
| 3 | Hoka One One | 69 |
| 4 | Merrell | 19 |
| 5 | Salomon | 15 |
| 6 | Brooks | 11 |
| 7 | La Sportiva | 8 |
Top Footwear by Model
| Rank | Model | Responses | Average Satisfaction Rating (out of 10) | Percent of Total Responses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Altra Lone Peak | 75 | 8.7 | 19% |
| 2 | Hoka Speedgoat | 56 | 8.8 | 14% |
| 3 | Topo Athletic Ultraventure | 33 | 8.7 | 9% |
| 4 | Topo Athletic Terraventure | 32 | 9.1 | 8% |
| 5 | Altra Olympus | 25 | 8.0 | 6% |
| 6 | Topo Athletic Traverse | 22 | 9.1 | 6% |
| 7 | Topo Athletic Pursuit | 16 | 9.0 | 4% |
| 8 | Merrel Moab | 13 | 8.8 | 3% |
1) Topo Athletic (116)
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Ultraventure (33)
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Most popular model: 3
-
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Terraventure (32)
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Most popular model: 4
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Traverse (22)
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Pursuit (16)
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Trailventure (6)
2) Altra (110
3) Hoka One One (69)
4) Merrell (19)
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Moab (13)
5) Salomon (15)
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X Ultra (6)
6) Brooks (11)
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Cascadia (8)
7) La Sportiva (8)
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Raptor (5)
Socks
| Brand | Responses | Percent of Responses |
|---|---|---|
| Darn Tough | 311 | 81% |
| Injinji | 32 | 8% |
| Smartwool | 22 | 6% |
| Farm to Feet | 5 | 1% |
Once again, Darn Tough was the most popular sock brand by a wide margin. Their biggest perk is their lifetime warranty, as they will replace any damaged pair if you send them back. Furthermore, it’s possible to trade in damaged Darn Tough socks for a new pair on the spot at many outfitters along the Appalachian Trail (clean, please wash them first). Their warranty has always made them a fan favorite.
The other brands listed, although not as widely used, are still popular enough to be mentioned year after year.
Very few respondents remembered specific sock models. And because there are so many of them, it was not possible to report this information.
34% of long-distance hikers in our survey wore sock liners. Injinji toe socks led this category by a landslide, with 111 out of 118 of those who wore liner socks using the brand. The only other brand of liner socks with more than one user was REI.
2023 Appalachian Trail Footwear Summary
- While the percentage of hikers wearing trail runners decreased since last year from 91% to 86%, trail runners are still the dominating shoe choice over trail runners, hiking shoes, and other footwear options.
- While boots may still be preferable during the snowy seasons, we recommend that hikers planning a thru-hike or a long section hike consider wearing lightweight, flexible, and breathable shoes for the majority.
- In general, thru-hikers should plan to go through four to five pairs of trail runners and at least three pairs of hiking boots.
- Topo Athletic has usurped Altra’s spot as the most popular brand this year on the AT, but the Altra Lone Peak is still the top model, followed by the Hoka Speedgoat and the Topo Athletic Ultraventure.
- Darn Tough, Injinji, and Smartwool socks were all well-represented on the AT, but Darn Tough was by far the most popular with 81% of respondents using them.
- Injinji is the leader in sock liners, and one-third of respondents wore sock liners regularly during their hike.
Thank you!
Congratulations to all the Appalachian Trail hikers this year — and a huge thank you to all of you who took the time to fill out the survey! Upcoming posts will detail AT hikers’ backpacks, shelter systems, sleeping bags, and stoves/filters.
To stay up to date on the latest survey posts, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter.
Featured image: Graphic design by Chris Helm.
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Comments 2
Error I think.
91% to 86%, trail runners are still the dominating shoe choice over trail runners
Redundant.
Anyway, a very good article from a person who has hiked the Appalachian trail many times. Never done a full through hike. What is very interesting? I didn’t know you could go through that many pairs of shoes in a through hike
This is great to see! I had gone with Altras on previous hikes but switched to the Topo Athletic Trailventures for my AT thru this past summer, and was SUPER happy with them. I got my first and only replacement pair in northern PA (Swatara to be specific, mailed to the hostel), and that 2nd pair lasted me all the way through Maine. I also had a really good experience with the Darn Tough lifetime warranty, replacing both pairs, once on-trail in Manchester Center VT and the other post-trail via mail request; it was really low stress. Thanks as always for the write-up, really nice to see how my experiences compared with others!