It's The Shoes!

[Double Wide]

I've got a shoe question for all you thru hikers. No, not whether I should wear boots, or trail runners, or just get my hippie on and go barefoot. I'll be starting the trail wearing a pair of Oboz Yellowstone II boots. I've got about a hundred miles on them so far and like them well enough to say that they're gonna be my footwear of choice next March when I leave Springer for that long walk north.

My question is, how long can I realistically expect them to last? From my armchair thru-hiking research this past year, it sounds like everyone needs three and sometimes four pairs of footwear to get to Maine. Did you buy three pairs in advance and try to break them all in before you left, or did you just buy new shoes/boots at outfitters along the way and deal with the break-in issues for the first few days in the middle of your hike?

Did you mail drop broken-in boots to a specific place? Did all your footwear planning go out the window and did you say eff-this and just buy different shoes at Neels Gap, or how did you handle it. I've even thought of changing the boots to trail runners from Damascus until I got to, say, Harper's Ferry, and then putting the boots back on to tackle the Pennsylvania rocks, but I'm not sure.

Having absolutely ZERO experience with long-distance hiking (nothing more than a couple days of backpacking at a time so far), I was wondering how to handle this one last gear question. Everything else is pretty much settled, but right now I've got that one pair of boots and my Croc slides for camp shoes.

Basically, what did you end up doing for new footwear as you went, and how did it different from what you originally planned? Thanks.

[Nutbrown]

I'm not a thru...yet, but your feet will grow. In a 9 month pregnancy, which was my own personal thru, my feet grew 1/2 a size. Then another 1/2 size for the 2nd pregnancy. And seeing that your feet will grow into hooves, breaking in new boots won't be an issue.

[peakbagger]

They look like a midweight hiker. Generally, the insoles supplied with the shoes are not great so a consideration is if the boots hold up, to replace insoles. Boots get shredded in NH and the whites, although NY has several long stretches of rocky going. Unless you are wearing Limmers which have wider than normal overhang of the sole versus the boot body, the sides of the shoes and boots tend to get shredded. My trail runners used mostly in maine and in the whites have about one season or about 600 miles before they are in rough shape.

What you cant predict is design defects which are model specific. If the boot has a design flaw or a week spot, you will inevitably find it.

As usual your mileage many vary.

[moldy]

Your Oboz Yellowstone shoes will fail completely by Pearisburg or Daleville Va. You can make them last longer by taking your knife and trimming the pealing knobs on the bottom when they start to peel back. Inspect every few days. The failure will start at the outside edges or the toe. If you don't trim them they will just continue to peel and you will be walking on your socks. Some of the knobs will be cut completely off. If you have toe peel, borrow some shoe goo and glue it down. You can even do this in advance of your hike. You will not be saving these shoes. Don't buy 3 pairs in advance of your hike and just swap them out. That will lock you in to shoes you may not like. This type of shoe is easy to break in. Purchasing them at an outfitter store is the most convenient way to get new shoes on the trail. At this point you will not want to risk the crap shoot of mail order shoes. You will want to sit down and try on several kinds and sizes. The dryer the hiking year the longer your shoes will last.

[FarmerChef]

They look like a midweight hiker. Generally, the insoles supplied with the shoes are not great so a consideration is if the boots hold up, to replace insoles. Boots get shredded in NH and the whites, although NY has several long stretches of rocky going. Unless you are wearing Limmers which have wider than normal overhang of the sole versus the boot body, the sides of the shoes and boots tend to get shredded. My trail runners used mostly in maine and in the whites have about one season or about 600 miles before they are in rough shape.

What you cant predict is design defects which are model specific. If the boot has a design flaw or a week spot, you will inevitably find it.

As usual your mileage many vary.

My trail runners are usually good for around 500-600 miles depending on terrain. I agree about the sides getting shredded first as my feet inevitably overhang the sole of the shoe. The toe also takes a licking and all my trail runners have had toe peel pretty early on. Goop or another strong adhesive can help with the toe peel aspects.

As to buying 4 pairs, I would say don't. Start out in the first pair and, if you love 'em, keep buying them all the way up the trail. You will probably need to get a larger size the farther you go anyway. As for breaking them in, I'm not sure what to tell you there. The trail runners I use tend not to need that much breaking in but I don't have a lot of experience with boots.

[bigcranky]

Plan to replace them along the way. You can either mail order a new pair of the same shoe (perhaps in a larger size - you'll know), or find something different at an outfitter. There are plenty of good outfitters near the trail, certainly every couple of hundred miles, and sometimes far more often.