Quick Drying Footwear

I look for shoes that are all synthetic material…no leather and have removable inserts. For socks I wear the lightest nylon socks I can find.

Barnds don't matter much for me as long as the shoe fits.

I use the Inov-8 X-Talon 240 Extreme Trail shoes for a lot of my hiking… very fast drying for shoes that have some padding, and weigh less than 9oz each in a size 10.5. For reference, the names of all the Inov-8 shoes are related to their weight in a size 9 (i.e., a size 9 in the X-Talon 240 weighs 240g).

The other thing to consider is shoes that have basically zero padding, so there is little or no absorbed water to dry out. Shoes like some of the Vivo Barefoot Evo line are that way — if you use them without the inserts (as they recommend) there is hardly any area that can absorb water. You could basically dry them out with a towel if you wanted to.

For smell reasons, I use wool socks. I prefer the Smartwool PhD line. One thing to remember though is that if you are hiking in a lot of water and any of that water smells bad, then it doesn't matter what your socks are made out of, they will smell bad once they absorb that water. There is one trail I know of that always has standing water, and the best approach there is to just plan to throw out your socks at the end of the hike.

Thanks for your advice, it's much appreciated.

Daryl, i agree that fit is THE most important factor and that brands, and looks for that matter, are of little importance.

Tim, thanks for bringing the inov-8's to my attention, the particular model you mention seems to have been discontinued though. Their mid height boots are all GTX now.
I found an article about minimalist footwear including the Vivo's right here on BPL. It looks like there's a wide variation in how fast those minimalist shoes dry.

The reason why i'm inquiring about shoes and socks that retain very little water is that i prefer walking them dry after they got wet (rain, fording). I don't want to stop and wring them out or something, but i don't want to deal with wet feet for a whole day just because i walked through wet grass in the morning either.
The ideal shoe for my use should retain little water and it should be somewhat sand-proof. I have not found it yet.