Know your gear

What is the story with women’s hiking boots?

The women’s outdoor market is growing. The brands have awakened to this fact and are bringing out more women’s specific apparel, footwear and equipment. This is all well, but what is the actual difference between men’s and women’s products? To be more specific — hiking boots.

Lauren Ploos from Hi-Tec says about 35% of their hiking boots range is for ladies and that the hiking boot market is skewed towards men.

There is however a growing number of requests for ladies’ outdoor footwear, not only in boots, but also other items, for example watershoes, sandals and hunting boots, says Iqbal Baruffwala from Bar Global Trading, distributors of Wolverine

Miles O’Brien from Jordan & Co., distributers of Olympic, feels that women do not find rugged hiking-specific boots a necessity when hiking. They even use off-road running shoes instead of hiking boots, or men’s boots.

O’Brien says that they sell about 1 ladies hiking boot to every 7 men’s hiking boots.

Geoff Ward from Outward Ventures, distributors of La Sportiva, reckons the gender breakdown amongst hikers is close to 50/50, but that the proportion of ladies’ hiking boots sold by retailers is more likely between 10–20% of their hiking boot sales.

Ward says the low sales percentage of ladies’ hiking boots in stores is probably due to women being willing to try on men’s hiking boots. However, Ward adds that on the flip-side of the coin, men are very reluctant to try on a ladies’ boot — even if the fit might be better.

Often women buy men’s boots, because there is insufficient stock in the ladies’ and they cannot buy a ladies’ boot if they wanted to, or just because the men’s boot has a better fit for the individual.

Retailers are often aware of the fact that women are willing to buy men’s boots and, to reduce the risk of holding stock that will not sell quickly enough, often do not stock the ladies’ boots if they can get women to buy men’s.

Must women wear ladies’ boots?

The big difference — and reason why women should in fact wear ladies boots — is that women have longer calf muscles, meaning more attention must be given to the heel area of the boot. The last is also different due to the shape difference in men’s and women’s feet.

However, Ploos adds that it is usually a personal preference whether to wear a men’s or ladies’ boot. It also depends greatly on your foot shape as some women have wider feet and thus prefer men’s boots.

Baruffwala, on the other hand, says there is not much difference between men’s and women’s hiking boots.

He agrees that one of the big differences is the last, which is narrower for ladies. He adds that sizing is probably the biggest issue when buying ladies footwear — where men’s sizes start at UK6, the most popular sizes being 9 and 10, ladies sizes 5 and 6 are the most popular. This means that retailers have to order specifically for women, since their sizes are usually not stocked well enough if they opt for men’s footwear.

O’Brien suggests that women are more likely to buy a mid-cut boot, as opposed to a low-cut, due to the stability the higher cut provides.

To a retailer this suggests that the sale should rather be done on the cut of the boot — and not the (male vs female) label.

Are looks important?

Baruffwala believes aesthetics is an important criteria when women buy their boots. He says they have done very well with Julia, a navy/grey ladies boot, whereas men seem to prefer their Spencer (a brown boot).

Ploos believes it is a combination of aesthetics and technical specs that sell the boot.

"Women want to look good but at the same time they want the boots to be comfortable and have the necessary features," says Ploos. "A very important part of women’s hiking boots is that they need to be lightweight." This is where Hi-Tec’s V-Lite technology has done very well for them — it allows a reduction in the boot’s weight without compromising on performance.

O’Brien says that it is mostly aesthetics that sell women’s footwear, because women tend to be more image conscious than men. He says that the toned and lighter colours sell well with ladies, for example a good combination would be fawn with a touch of lilac or orange. However, various shades of brown are still the predominant colours.

Hiking boots for casual wear

Compared to their male counterparts, women are less likely to buy low-tech hiking boots to wear as leisurewear — generally they prefer sneakers says Baruffwala.

O’Brien agrees that women are less likely to wear hiking boots as casual wear. While men wear their boots to the rugby or a braai he feels that women will not easily do the same.

Ward adds that men are also likely to wear their boots for hard, rough work where their feet need extra protection.

However, he goes on to say that women will wear their boots for leisure, but yet again aesthetics plays a big role. The boots should not make the feet look large and clumsy.

La Sportiva offers womens sizes in around 75% of their models ranging from serious mountain boots to technical rock shoes. When designing their women’s boots the brand especially takes into account that women’s feet are more sensitive to pressure, that the forefoot has less volume, the heel is narrower and straighter, and the calf is lower.

A lot of Hi-Tec ladies boots are bought for casual wear, as is the case with most sporting footwear. Hi-Tec hiking boots are worn casually because they are comfortable, durable and lightweight.

The right boot for the right job

A hiking boot is a hiking boot is a hiking boot … right? Wrong! When selling a hiking boot to customers you need to ask what kind of hiking they will be doing, for example day trekking, backpacking trekking, or serious mountaineering.

For a short hike the customer will need light boots, which are comfortable, but also great for setting a quick pace.

For a 3–4 day backpacking hike, advise the customer to go for a mid-weight boot. The boot will offer better protection than a lightweight boot, but it is not heavy enough to slow the customer.

The customer will need heavy boots when climbing and trekking for long periods over rough terrain. The heavy boots provide the necessary support and can take a lot of wear-and-tear. To check the boot for strength, bend the boot sideways. If it bends easily it is not strong enough. For the toe, apply hard pressure to the front of the shoe — if it goes in easily, the boot is not strong enough.