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The Best Hiking Boots: Our Guide to your #1 Piece of Hiking Gear

The best hiking boots on the market can range from tough, traditional, big-lugged mud stompers to sleek, highly technical, super light trekking machines.

The boot you choose will depend on your tastes and your end use. The top-rated trekking shoes are tightly related to the companies that make them.

Here is our rundown on the best hiking boot makers.

All of them are good (otherwise they wouldn’t be in our list!), but each company has their own way of designing and producing your most important piece of hiking gear: your boots.

Asolo Hiking Boots

Italian boot maker, Asolo, produces hiking boots that are like a performance Italian car: beautiful, complex, highly technical, and of course, a bit on the pricey side.

Asolo makes boots to drool over. They put technology into the tiny details, like the mini pulleys that the shoe laces are laced through.

By far one of the best hiking boots on the market, Asolo boots are worn by professional trekkers and mountaineers, and offer a range of styles for various activities.

We recommend Moosejaw.com for one of the best selections of the newest and most popular Asolo boots.

Merrell Hiking Boots

U.S. shoe maker, Merrell is one of the most well-known producers of hiking boots and other outdoor footwear.

Merrell Hiking Boots

Merrell probably has the largest catalog of hiking boots and trail footwear of any company. So, it’s easy to find a Merrell hiking shoe that’s right for you, your activity, taste, and budget.

Merrell’s shoes range from trail running athletic shoes, to midweight waterproof boots, to mountaineering footwear. Merrell is currently owned by Wolverine, which also produces work boots.

Lowa Hiking Boots

Lowa hiking boots come from a long tradition of trekking and mountaineering in the country that produces this shoe: Germany.

Lowa Hiking Boots

One of the oldest boot makers, Lowa has developed with trends in technology to produce highly engineered boots and shoes.

Like Asolo hiking boots, Lowas are top of the line with a focus on the performance needs of professional trekkers and mountaineers.

Danner Hiking Boots

U.S. boot-maker Danner is one of the most traditional boot companies still out there. They pride themselves on being craftsmen in the art of boot-making.

Unlike other companies that dabble in athletic and casual footwear, Danner is very clear about their product. They make well-made long-lasting BOOTS.

Danner Hiking Boots

Danner’s product line includes modern military boots as well as hunting, work, and hiking boots. Although Danner boots normally require much longer break-in periods, they are known to last years and years.

Best of all, you can send most worn Danner boots back to the factory to be reconditioned, for about a third to half of the original purchase price.

Vasque Hiking Boots

Producing some of the best hiking boots from the U.S. , Vasque focuses their efforts on high-quality, engineered footwear for outdoor activities. They have always targeted the needs of pros as well as enthusiasts, with an eye on the future of outdoor footwear.

Vasque Hiking Boots

Their shoes range from cross training and trail running shoes to mid-weight and mountaineering boots.

Vasque shoes are recognized for out-of-the-box comfort. Like many companies, Vasque produces footwear with high quality materials like Gore-Tex liners and Vibram outsoles.

Keen Hiking Boots

One of the newest outdoor shoe makers, U.S.-based Keen Footwear makes itself stand apart from the crowd with its “Hybrid Life” motto.

With their semi-aquatic footwear, they recognize that a hiker will climb to a peak, slosh through a stream, and ramble along the beach on a given day. They have some great ideas and take into account the outdoors-people that might go from an urban walk to a hike through the woods in the same day.

Keen Hiking Boots

Keen shoes are aggressively designed and engineered and many include waterproof and water-draining features. They mix technical materials like a proprietary membrane and traditional materials like leather.

Keen’s product line ranges from sandals to multi-activity shoes, to full-on hiking boots. With an athletic fit and materials, most Keen boots require a short or no break in period and are comfortable out of the box.

Columbia Hiking Boots

Columbia is one of the largest (and oldest) outdoor apparel, footwear, and equipment producers in the U.S.

Columbia Hiking Boots

Although the selection of hiking boots might be diluted by the sheer quantity of products that this company offers, Columbia’s clothes and gear are known for their high quality, use of technology, and style.

This quality and style carries over to their selection of athletic, casual, and hiking shoes. Some of the best hiking shoes, especially for light hiking and street hiking, carry the Columbia logo.

Ecco Hiking Boots

Denmark’s Ecco is unique in that the company produces business-casual footwear for the office, as well as golf and athletic shoes.

Ecco’s hiking footwear are some of the best hiking boots out there, although the actual hiking boot catalog is fairly slim.

Ecco Hiking Boots

One of the special features in some of Ecco’s boots is the use of Yak leather, which is 3 times stronger than normal cowhide. Ecco boots are tough and definitely mountain worthy.

Dunham Hiking Boots

Dunham hiking boots have their roots in an American shoe store that two brothers opened in the 1800’s, with the goal of serving the footwear needs of early pioneers and frontiersmen and women.

Dunham Hiking Boots

Recently Dunham was acquired by the large New Balance athletic shoe company and is part of the company’s performance division.

Dunham boots pride themselves on offering some of the best hiking boots in every size and fit imaginable. Technology has taken hold in their products, which feature a number of proprietary features, like special waterproofing and waterproof and breathable liners.

Salomon Hiking Boots

At Salomon, they know snow. Salomon is a French outdoor gear company that produces some of the best hiking boots on the market, in addition to their arsenal of ski, snowboard, and Nordic gear.

Salomon Hiking Boots

Their footwear is highly technical with an array of boots geared towards extreme winter hiking, trail running, and backpacking.

Salomon has a large catalog of footwear that is sleek and comfortable and perfect for the technical-minded hiker.

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For more about Hiking Boots, check out these articles:

Hiking Boot Reviews: Keep Your Footing on the Trails Before you buy, make sure to stop by our hiking boot reviews on trail-tested shoes, and not just store-tested shoes. Rave about your favorite boots, or gripe about a bad purchase.

How to Choose the Right Hiking Boots Hiking boots are your most important investment as a hiker. Here is the need to know information to help you choose the best hiking boots for you.

Waterproof Hiking Boots: How to Choose and Maintain What to look for in waterproof hiking boots, and how to apply waterproofing products, so you stay dry and toasty on the trails…

Performance Hiking Socks: Treat Your Feet Right Save your feet out on the trails with quality Hiking Socks. Here’s all you need to know about the best socks for your treks...