7 Best Hiking Shoes For Men in 2026

How we test hiking shoes for men

Our testing process is straightforward:

• To stay unbiased in the way we do our reviews, we buy men's hiking shoes using our own funds.
• We test each pair on the trails, carrying a heavy backpack, trying to run, covering wet and dry surfaces, basically doing our best to find the pros and cons. 
• We test the shoes in the lab and quantify their traction, outsole durability, breathability, and other features. This allows you to use our website to compare men's hiking shoes and find the one that fits your needs the best. 

3 things to know when buying men’s hiking shoes

If this is your first rodeo, we have to talk about the 3 most important things, because everything else leads from there: the fit, hike difficulty/type, and the season. 

Nailing the fit 

Nailing the fit is not just about figuring out which size you need, but also knowing that:

1. you should try them on later in the day when your feet are more tired and swollen (because your feet will swell on the hike anyway and you should be prepared for that),
2. you should test the shoes on the ramp in the store or at home, getting them to different positions, in order to assess whether they are comfortable on ascent/descents too, and not just on the flat terrain, 
3. your feet should not be sliding side to side or front to back. Good lockdown is everything. 

In case you’re not sure about which size you need, we wrote about how to measure your feet. We also have size charts for all the brands, so that you can find your size easily or convert from one brand to another. 

Keep in mind that some brands deviate from the standard. For example, Danner sells their Mountain Light Cascade in EE width (wide) by default, while for the Trail 2650, the default is (the industry standard) regular width, D (medium). That does not mean that the Cascade is significantly wider. 

Hike difficulty or hike type

The anatomy of the hiking shoe, build quality, and basically everything depends on the hike difficulty and hike type. It’s best to know in advance what you plan to use the hiking shoes for: 

• Urban hiking: city to trail, walks in the city parks, casual use, and so on. Some people love these shoes for woodworking, different crafts, going to the pub, and simply looking cool. 
• Light hiking: light trails, well-maintained, quite short, and almost flat. 
• Moderate hiking: covering a bit of everything, yet nothing too extreme. Can involve carrying a backpack and multi-day hikes, camping, other outdoor activities revolving around water, etc. 
• Technical terrain: obstacles like roots or rocks, sharp debris. Maximum levels of stability and protection needed. 
• Mud and snow: when you need very deep lugs made of very grippy rubber! 
• Fast and light or speed hiking: prioritizing lightweight footwear and agility. 
• Backpacking: a lot of stability needed! And good shock absorption. 

If you’re browsing our website, you will find men’s hiking shoes tagged for different uses and terrains. 

Season

Dry and hot? Prioritize breathability! Very cold? Look for shoes that trap the heat and are maybe even insulated. A lot of moisture, snow, rain? A waterproof membrane it is. Do you plan to do multi-day hikes? You need high drying potential. And yes, we do cover it all! Both in our hiking shoe review and here in this guide. 

Traction in hiking shoes for men

Testing the traction is very straightforward in our lab. We take the shoe, angle it to 7 degrees, press it against the surface using a force of 500N, and measure the dynamic coefficient of friction. We do this in the so-called critical conditions (we wet the surface). This is the standard: SATRA TM144. 

If you want superb traction, look for the highest coefficient of friction possible. We consider it super when it’s higher than 0.65 and moderate when it’s in the 0.55-0.65 range. Of course, traction is only one side of the story. We also have to look at the lug depth, lug orientation, and overall tread pattern. 

And then, looking at the outsoles, we can see significant differences. More channels and grooves = better for rain and channeling the rain out; thicker lugs placed further apart = better for mud and snow shedding; a lot of dense lugs = great for hard surfaces like flat rocks. 

Finding the most durable men’s hiking shoes

When investing in a pair of hiking shoes, we all want them to last as long as possible. We test the durability of 3 hiking shoe parts: the toebox, the heel padding, and the outsole. If you’re already an experienced hiker looking for a more durable shoe, you may already know which part of your shoe gets destroyed first, and look for better performance in that area. 

The toebox in hiking shoes often features some sort of reinforcement, like a toebumper or upper overlays. Those can be closer to the ground and not on the top where we perform the test, and it’s what the test results highly depend on, obviously.

Then, we put our Dremel against the padding behind the heel. Yes, it’s THAT area. The one that gets damaged easily if you have a bony heel or you like to force your feet inside the shoes without the help of a shoehorn. 

Last but not least, we press the Dremel against the outsole. No need to assign a 1-5 rating this time because we can use a tire tread gauge to measure just how deep the Dremel went (the deeper the dent, the less durable the outsole). 

While scratches on the upper or heel padding are not good looking, they don’t ruin your hike. But, if your lugs get worn too much, as in, they lose a few millimeters of their thickness, the outsole simply may not offer the traction you are used to. 

Men's hiking shoes with the best cushioning

When it comes to cushioning, we're curious about 3 things: midsole softness, shock absorption, and energy return. 

Men dreaming of clouds under their feet usually think that only Hoka hiking shoes offer that. With this test, it's easy to find the softest midsoles, if that's your thing. The current average midsole softness of men's hiking shoes is 45.0 AC. 

However, for prolonged comfort, we focus on shock absorption. 

Shock absorption tells us how good the hiking shoe's midsole is at reducing the impact forces. Every time you stomp, the shoe deals with stress that would have otherwise been sent to your legs. Just imagine stomping on the concrete and then on the midsole. 

Obviously, the higher the shock absorption, the better. Especially if you're doing longer hikes, carry a heavy backpack, or simply weigh more. During the same test, we also measure energy return. This test tells us how lively (propulsive) the ride is and it's actually much more important in trail running than hiking. That being said, if you occasionally run too or do speed hiking, it's good to check this test as well. 

A little bit of everything: all-around hiking shoes for men

When versatility is the key, we look for all-around hiking shoes. These hiking shoes can do a bit of everything but are most reliable on moderate terrain. 

They are also more protective than urban hikers, but they don’t excel on technical terrain. Moderate terrain sits between hard-packed, mostly flat trails, and obstacle-covered or technical trails that are often very steep. 

Best casual hiking shoes for men

Sometimes, it’s not about the summit or the traverse. It’s not about doing your best on the climb. It can be about loving the outdoorsy looks and wanting the sturdiness or protection even when hitting the city. The pub, the park, or the market. That’s when urban hiking shoes enter the scene. 

Some of these hiking shoes may even have deep lugs, but when everything is taken into account - their build, their durability, traction, shock absorption - they are best for casual wear. Door to trail! OK to be used on light trails, but don’t expect them to be versatile if your appetite grows. 

Hiking shoe choices for technical terrain 

You see them coming: pebbles, scree, roots, debris, maybe even mud? Ugh, better safe than sorry! What’s the best approach here? Again, depends on the terrain. If you plan to hike over scree and rocky areas, prioritize stiffness and protection. Stiffness of the platform will keep you stable and not wobbly because no one likes twisted ankles, right? Protection is obvious; rocks can be very harsh. 

When it comes to mud, you need thick lugs placed further away from each other. Grippy rubber. And here, actually, the immediate bite, especially when the terrain is not flat, matters much more than the stiffness. 

As you can see, the terrain dictates the levels of grip, traction, protection, and stability you may need. 

Best men’s hiking shoes for summer: breathability lab test

Compared to trail running shoes, hiking shoes are not nearly as breathable. In winter, we rarely worry about this; we appreciate the warmth. Then comes summer and the search starts: best socks for sweaty feet, best hiking shoes for warm days, etc. Fortunately, this is something we started testing in the lab!

This test tells us 2 things:

1. How breathable the shoe is, or how much sweat is moved away from the skin. It’s simple: the drier the feet, the better! Sweat on skin means more discomfort and blisters and noone wants that.
2. How effectively the shoe’s materials evaporate the moisture. This is especially important for hikers doing multi-day hikes because it tells us whether the shoe is quick or slow to dry. 

Basically, we want both numbers to be as high as possible. But we have to keep in mind that we’re still talking about hiking footwear, and not lightweight trail runners. For context, based on the numbers we have at the moment of writing this guide, the average breathability for trail running shoes is 71 BR, while it’s 59 BR for hiking shoes. Drying potential, on the other hand, averages at 51% for trail runners and 39% for hiking shoes. 

Waterproof hiking shoes for men

Even walking your dog in the morning over wet grass can ruin the activity the moment your feet feel the socks getting wet and cold. Not to mention if you’re actually planning a hike where you may encounter rain, snow, or mud. Enter waterproof membranes! 

The most popular waterproof membrane on the market is Gore-Tex. 

However, some brands develop their own waterproof membranes, so “GTX” is not the only indicator of waterproofing in the world of hiking shoes. 

What you can expect from waterproof hiking shoes: water stays out, but heat stays inside. These shoes are never breezy. It’s best to use them in colder weather. 

We actually test the breathability and the drying potential in our lab and, while some shoes manage to score higher on the breathability test (moving the sweat away from the skin), they can’t score nearly as high on the drying potential test (overall sweat that has evaporated through the shoe’s materials). 

Weight of men’s hiking shoes: accurate lab data

Many hikers look for lightweight hiking shoes, whether it’s because they plan to do some speed hiking or they simply prefer going fast and light. We’re here to help those hikers and also to note very heavy hiking shoes, as they may be too heavy for beginners and put more stress on their legs. 

The average weight of all hiking shoes we’ve tested so far is 13.3 oz (376.4g) and we consider them lightweight when they weigh less than 14.1 oz (400g). 

Just in case, here are the heaviest hiking shoes too: