First light hiking shoes, fit suggestion

Michelle:

Unfortunately, my hard-won experience is that it's almost impossible to predict which shoes will fit which person. I ended up trying 4-5 different manufacturers, including Inov-8, Montrail, Oboz, and New Balance before settling on Salomon Wings XT 3's. I've now bought 5 pairs – one is worn out, a second is close, and the other three are intended to keep me going for the next couple seasons.

Oh, yeah – and some of them felt just great in the store or walking around the neighborhood but only exposed their flaws on the trail. So my best advice is:
1) if it doesn't feel like it was made for you when you put it on, try something else (or another size).
2) Use a store (e.g., REI) or website (runningwarehouse.com) with a liberal returns policy.
3) Before doing any trips of more than a few days, be sure you've done at least two days (or three) in a row with long days on the trail. It's hard to get an accurate sense of how your shoes will perform over a week or more otherwise.
4) I have found that Salomon and New Balance tend to fit me better (I have wide feet, particularly in the front half) – so if you find one model that works for you, others from that brand just might work too.

Best of luck!

Duane B.

In addition to Duane's thoughts, I'll add:

You MUST wear the shoes on a down ramp before leaving the store (all REIs and any decent BPing store have them in the shoe department). You try to jam your foot forward in the shoes while on the ramp. You don't want your toes to touch the front of the shoe at all. If they touch, you need a bigger size, to lace them a little tighter, or a different brand made from a last that conforms better to your foot. If you are doing mail order, set up a 30 degree ramp at home. You don't have walk down the ramp, just stand on it and try to jam your feet forward in the shoe, as if you're standing on a steep slope, facing downhill.

And then walk around inside the store or your house, as you feel for any heel lift. 1/8 – 1/4" is fine. More than that is asking for blisters on your heel. If the heel lift is fine, keep wearing them around as long as time allows and feel for any rubbing or potential "hot spots" where some bump on your foot or seam on the shoe creates a pressure spot.

The downhill test pushes you to larger sizes. The heel lift test pushes you to smaller sizes. The overlap is when the shoe is well designed and their theory of foot shape matches the reality of your feet. Know which foot is larger (for 80% of people, it is their left foot) and watch the toe clearance on that one and the heel lift on the smaller foot. If you're more than a size off, considering getting two pairs for a better fit on each foot. (Evidence that REI has well-trained staff: they ALWAYS check that shoe sizes match when they ring you up, for catching both honest mistakes and the other kind).

It looks odd, but it can be very informative to wear two sizes or two totally different brands/models on each foot at the same time.

Don't do this when you have only 15 minutes. Figure on an hour at the shoe store. You'll be wearing them for hundreds and hundreds of hours. With a blister and 2 days of hiking to go, you'd gladly trade an hour of your time for a better fit.

IMNSHO: You shouldn't wear shoes out of the house/store if you might be returning them. And, if so, any retailer should accept the shoes with their original packaging back for a full refund.