AT Thru-Hikers Footwear by the Numbers

Not gonna lie, I'm shocked that trail runners are at 50% and boots down at 25%. I would have easily guessed the opposite. Most people look at me like a unicorn with my Salomon's on. The times they are changin'…

Ryan

"Zach Davis surveyed 107 AT backpackers from last year (including 77 thru-hikers and 20 hikers who walked over 1,000 miles)."

A drop in the bucket. Over 2500 people thru hiked last year, plus all the other users.

"A drop in the bucket. Over 2500 people thru hiked last year, plus all the other users."

That's a plenty big enough sample size for this sort of poll. Presidential polls typically survey several hundred or a few thousand people out of, say, 10 million voters in a state. With 100 surveyed out of 2,500, those numbers should be accurate to +/- 9% at most.

Correct. A sample size of even 10% is considered huge for things like this. Complete accuracy is not necessarily the goal, identifying trends more so.

Ryan

Fact that he choose people with 1000 miles + skews it toward that group.

Of the probably 800 alone that didnt make it out of GA, the vast majority were probably wearing boots. (And carrying too much wt)

Good points.