The Best Hiking Shoes for Guys Who’d Rather Do Anything Else

Best Everyday Hiking Shoes: Hoka Tor Summit Shoes

Even the coolest hiking boots can be a little intimidating to wear outside of its natural environment. For fear of being outed as a poser or failing to live up to the swag that big honkin’ hikers can demand, you might want a pair of hiking shoes that require less upfront knowledge of the trail and fashion wizardry. Hoka’s Tor Summit hiking shoes are that ideal in-between that can rock with light trails and your daily fits with nary a misstep.

In fact, some of our very own GQ staffers were surprised to find out that these joints actually possessed hiking bona fides given how much they fit into a streetwear aesthetic. Speaking anecdotally, I’ve even seen these shoes on some of the coolest people during Paris Fashion Week (a grueling hike of its own kind).

Best Retro Hiking Shoes: Danner Mountain Light Boots

Danner’s classic Mountain boots made a serious impression when they first debuted in the 1970s and they’re still making a great impression to this day. They feature a single-piece full-grain leather upper, a supportive fiberglass shank, a waterproof Gore-tex lining, and a grippy Vibram kletterlift outsole. At a hefty 29 ounces per shoe, they’re more than double the weight of some of the other options on this list and come with an inherent break-in period, which will undoubtedly turn some people off.

But the classic old-school alpine looks will outlast any design trend so if you’re into the aesthetics now, you can bet you’ll still be into them years from now. Not only that, they’re also the only hiking shoe on this list that’s fully re-soleable. Thanks to the stitchdown construction, the Mountain Light can easily be recrafted by your local cobbler. They may be the heaviest. They may be the most expensive. But they’re also the most durable.

Best Old-Meets-New Hiking Shoes: Diemme Roccia Vet Boots

While we love the OG aesthetic of the Danner Mountain Light, the design can feel a bit stuck in the past both in terms of design and performance. Italian brand Diemme offers up its solution: a hiking boot that pays homage to the giants of the outdoor world while pushing toward modern materials and looks. The Roccia Vet is its most recognizable silhouette and takes after classic alpine boots with the lace-to-toe D-ring system and single-piece uppers. But instead of a hefty leather upper, these use a combination of lightweight polyester material that’s both water- and abrasion-resistant as well as a protective rubber guard to keep water and brush at bay.

The result is a throwback silhouette with a lighter, more comfortable, and cooler chassis. It’s the ideal hiking boot in so many ways and can take on some demanding trails as well as it can take on a challenging outfit. Of course, you can expect to pay through the nose for such a perfect hybrid.

Best Hiking Shoes for Fashion Guys: ROA Andreas Boots

ROA’s modern approach to outdoor gear is genuinely as refreshing as nature itself. With head-turning designs and technical prowess, the Italian label has laid claim to the fashion bros who fancy themselves as gorp whisperers. The Andreas Boots are its most recognizable silhouette and feels like a retro Jordan and 21st-century tactical footwear collided in the Italian Alps.

What results is a hiking boot that simply does not look like the rest in the best possible way. It features a hearty Vibram sole for grip and stability as well as rubber accents attached to a waxed Kudu leather upper which gives it water resistance, not to mention great potential for patina. And we’re not totally sure what kind of sorcery the ROA team had to do, but these feel more comfortable than you’d expect and are about as close to a sneaker as boot can get. All that to say, the ROA Andreas boots win us over in style, comfort, and whenever we feel like we actually want to go on a decent hike. But all that comes at a steep price that your wallet may not be equipped to traverse.