Are you one of those women who tend to shop in the men’s department for shoes? Have your footsies gone ballistics over weight gain and after-pregnancy edema-like growth that never wore off long after your baby’s first birthday? Too many women with wide feet, the frustration of finding out that your choice of footwear often fall among dark monochromatic hues of men’s shoes rather than hot pink or pastel ones from the women’s department can be truly frustrating.
Source : rei.com
Luckily, such cannot be said when it comes to active footwear like hiking. Finding the best hiking shoes for wide feet women are actually being addressed by experts– and we just round up the most stylish of the lot.
1.XeroShoes TerraFlex Trail Hiking Shoe
XeroShoes TerraFlex Trail Hiking Shoe
Think of giving your wide feet wings to fly and that’s what a pair of XeroShoes TerraFlex Trail Hiking Shoe offers to women with wide feet. Built with Huarache design that gives enough breathing room for your feet, Terraflex design allows a wider toe box to let your toes spread out and lounge about even when out on a hike. Aside from being lightweight as a feather at 8.4oz, it encourages proper posture and natural motion of the feet to bend and move with its non-elevated zero-drop heel design. FeelTrue sole does not just offer protection, it also features extra 3mm BareFoam padded insole and 4mm lugged outer sole. Definitely, this plant-based product contains no latex or animal products. Colors come in forest or black. Check your size here.
2.Clorts Women’s Hiker Boots
Clorts Women’s Hiker Boots
Combining climbing and sports, the Clorts brand is quite renowned all around the US and Europe for all outdoor explorations and fun. Made with 60 percent leather and 40 percent mesh, the Clorts Women’s Hiker Boots is designed with comfort, durability, and performance in mind. Made with high-quality fine-sense touch leather upper and Uneebtex membrane, it is waterproof yet breathable and lightweight to walk around. Your footsies are also protected the usual hazards of wind, sand, gravel or water with its one-piece tongue.
Add an EVA midsole and rubber outsole and you have one pair that will surely not give those dreaded blisters. They’re quite stylish, too, as colors come in brown, black, grey, purple or yellow! Check your size here.
3.Columbia Women’s Newton Ridge Plus Hiking Boot
Columbia Women’s Newton Ridge Plus Hiking Boot
Yet another excellent hiking companion for women with wide feet is the Columbia Women’s Newton Ridge Plus Hiking Boot pair. Coming in stylish quarry/cool wave and cordovan/crown jewel colors, these hiking boots offer needed comfort while ensuring durability and performance while on a hike. Made of leather and mesh upper with Omnishield feature, it is waterproof and stain-resistant.
Add to that compression-molded EVA foam midsole, triangular D-ring and clamshell lacing, Techlite cushioned midsole and Omnigrip lugged out-sole– and you have one awesome hiking footwear to make your wide footsies fly.
4. Timberland Women’s White Ledge Mid Ankle Boot
Timberland Women’s White Ledge Mid Ankle Boot
Made with premium waterproof 100% leather and comes with the gripper on the sole and padded collar and tongue for additional comfort. The best thing about these shoes is the ability to select the width. If you have wide feet it fits perfectly with a pair of hiking socks if you select the right size. Your toes will not get squashed together and the shoes also feel very lightweight considering its solid look and feels.
Another great feature about the Timberland Wide feet shoe for women is that they do not require any breaking in. You will have no blisters, issues or tight spots cramping your small toe like most other shoes even if you go for eight hours of hiking for four to five days.
Check out the current price and select your size from here.
5. Merrell Women’s Moab 2 Vent Mid Hiking Boot
Merrell Women’s Moab 2 Vent Mid Hiking Boot
If you are tired of trying and returning hiking shoes because they don’t fit your wide foot or swollen foot due to surgery at a bunion site for calcium deposit, this one is the right choice for you.
Also for those who have a high arch, these shoes have decent arch support and are very comfortable to wear even if you are standing ten hours on your feet due to the nature of your work.
Almost all who have used this agrees to the high comfort and breathability of the shoes. Check out the customer reviews and current price here.
6. Nevados Women’s Klondike Waterproof Hiking Boot
Nevados Women’s Klondike Waterproof Hiking Boot
This shoe features suede leather and breathable mesh with an internal waterproof bootie and is another good choice for those with a wide foot and on a tight budget.
However, if you are looking for complete waterproof hiking shoes, this may not be the best choice like the higher-priced options discussed below. With this, you can take a few steps in a stream and it would be perfectly fine but you would probably don’t want to absolutely soak them for long periods.
Overall it’s a good choice if you are looking for a budget buy. Check out more about it here
7. Vasque Women’s Talus Trek UltraDry Hiking Boot
Vasque Women’s Talus Trek UltraDry Hiking Boot
One of the Amazon customers mentioned this hiking boot as ‘diamond in the ruff” as these boots are very strong and resistant to abrasion and moisture even you are hiking for 6 hours in terrain that s icy, snowy, slushy, watery, muddy, and rocky – in other words, the type of hike that would normally tear up just about any shoe.
It has been experienced that even after all the bumps and plunges into the sharp or wet ground, these boots stayed 100% dry and significantly warm despite the temperature being just above freezing with one pair of regular socks on the inside.
So if you are looking for hiking boot whose material will be able to survive the roughest of a hike as well as give comfort to your wide feet, this is the one that will impress you.
Click here to check out the price and the size that will be right for you.
8. Lowa Women’s Renegade GTX Mid Hiking Boot
Lowa Women’s Renegade GTX Mid Hiking Boot
If you are a frequent hiker who loves lightweight waterproof breathable hiking shoes that can be worn in all terrains and including mountain climbing hikes you must consider this shoe before making your final choice.
This is what one of the customers has posted in Amazon about this shoe:
“I took them out of the box and began a 100-mile section hike the next day. No break in period. No blisters. All through the dreaded Pennsylvania Appalachian Trail sections, they held up, with no sign of wear and tear. I have walked for miles on flooded trails, my entire legs and backside covered in mud, but my feet remained dry.”
Click here to read more reviews and know more about its features.
While you can just go ahead to buy wide hiking shoes to your liking, you must consider your foot measurements first. You may believe for your feet to be comfortable if you pick wide hiking shoes. However, before you do that bear in mind that there are feet that are slim and narrow while others are wide especially at the forefoot. Ultimately, it is the shoe measurement that matters most when choosing the right hiking shoes for you.
To help you out here are some common width sizes used by most brands:
Women’s Wide (C or D) / Men’s Wide (E): This is ideal for people who have wide feet, flat feet, or have certain foot problems like a hammertoe , edema or bunions.
Women’s Extra-Wide (E) / Men’s Extra-Wide or EE: More E the shoe has wider the shoe is. This is an extra-wide hiking shoe that will suit people with swollen legs and or other similar foot conditions.
I have a Wide Foot. How Do I know Which Hiking Shoe will Fit Me best?
The best way to know what width will be best for you is to measure your foot properly. The absolute best way to measure your feet is by seeing a pedorthist who will measure your foot size and recommend modifications and devices to address foot conditions you may have. However, if you want to do the measuring it on your own, follow the steps below:
- Evening is the time when your foot is widest after day’s work. So take your foot measurement in the evening .
- Put on the socks you will be wearing for the hike with your wide foot hiking shoes.
- It may happen that one of your feet is bigger than the other. So measure each foot individually and note it down.
- Next on a piece of paper, trace your foot by drawing a line at the toe to the heel, and widest points of the sides.
- Now measure the length and width with a scale and use your preferred brand’s chart to figure out the actual width classification of your foot.
Online shops have made it more convenient for buyers by categorizing wide shoes apart from standard ones.
Factors that can affect the feet’s width:
Aging: It’s a known fact that with age the feet get wider as since the ligaments and muscles in the feet stretch and relax.
Obesity: Due to the extra weight the foot have to carry, more pressure is put on the ligaments and muscles making the feet go flatter.
Excessive standing: Often people have to stand for long hours over an extended period, due to their nature of work like construction workers. This also makes feet get wider.
Pregnancy: Today’s researchers say that the changes in women’s foot size during pregnancy happens due to the type of hormones produced in their bodies to increase the looseness of the joints and ligaments. As a result, to support the extra weight that pregnant women carry, they tend to get a flatter arch. It has also been suggested that foot size change that happens during pregnancy could even become permanent.
Most experts think that these days due to the modern lifestyle, more people now have wider feet. The good news, however, is that most companies have seen the importance of providing the market with more fashionable and comfortable wide hiking shoes as discussed above.
Get Those Footsies Going!
Shrek-like footsies should never be a hindrance to do the thing you love the most– hiking! With the best hiking shoes for wide feet women listed above, you can finally have that hiking adventure without fearing for blisters, plantar fasciitis and other maladies borne out of wearing the wrong pair. Choosing wide hiking shoes will make your hiking trips more enjoyable as opposed to squeezing the feet in narrow ones. Truly, you can now lose yourself in the wild and have fun trailing new heights!
