How to fit your hiking boots

When you're looking for a new pair of hiking boots, you need them to fit perfectly. For those of us shopping from home, we've put together this handy guide to getting your best fit, based on Outside's 30 years' of boot fitting experience.

[xBobby]

By far the best mountain boot purchasing guide on YouTube

[horbulewicz]

It is such a comprehensive, understandable, passionate and simply very practical tutorial. Thank you.

[GT-fxfd]

Didn't just find out how to fit my boots but got life advice found within fitting boots.
Outstanding stuff haha.
Cheers for the vid and thanks for the effort putting out QUALITY and HONEST content to help people.
Much love.

[marcosmonteiro]

I believe it's my first ever comment on a video in somewhat 20 years of youtube .... Thank you!

[chrisjackson]

i must thank you for this video.

after 15 years it was time for a new pair of boots, and i spoiled myself with an expensive pair of lowas. everything about the boot was perfect, except for a tiny bit of heel lift that i couldnt rectify. your third tip for the 'more difficult' cases worked a charm on me and my boots.

they fit tremendously. with the lacing technique shown here i cant even get my heel out of the heel cup if i try to, and the boot is free to do its job and feel snug and comfortable.

i would surely visit your shop, however i live across the pond in Canada so it is unlikely i will be able to pop by for a quick visit.

but please accept my deepest thanks for taking the time to make this video, you made an almost perfect pair of boots into a perfect pair of boots.

i really appreciate it. thank you.

[petercollins]

Absolutely brilliant video, particularly the lacing options. I have used an alternative lacing system for years and have never had a problem with my boots.

[Sool]

You made a brilliant point about 'finding faults' and over thinking it. I made an investment in a pair of really really nice boots and of course, they weren't all that after all. But after some really minor adjustments and a lot of walking in, they have now become so well adjusted and they fit so incredibly well, I can throw anything at them in almost any environment and my feet hardly ever feel very tired. Can't keep them off my feet.
So indeed, don't over think. Boots can take time to walk in, even when the leather feels nice and soft, it takes time.

[Kate-do]

Love this - really nicely filmed, nicely presented and great information. Thank you.

[zachmiller]

The two big eureka moments for me in terms of boot comfort were liners and leather laces, on super padded boots it's not as much of an issue but I've been wearing Jim green African rangers lately and leather laces let you get them really good and tight, more securely holds that pressure in each individual row of lacing without slipping through the eyelets, and very significantly reduces the amount of pressure the laces put on the top of the foot. Finding quality leather laces can be kind of hard though, I get mine from Nick's, a custom boot maker over herre in the US who source some really top quality leather laces.

[jeffreyalmond]

Great video with good practical advice. Makes me want to buy a pair of boots just for the hell of it, but my missus says I’ve got enough 😢.

[worldtoday]

I had to put in my Scarpa Delta, volume reducers and also in tongue depresors.

I got bigger laces 210cm. I tied around the ankle of the boot. Breaking the boots in, soften leather had all helped.

[danceswithbadgers]

Old-school liner plus two for me, mainly because my feet are very low volume and flap around inside boots otherwise. Size charts aren't much use as they all suggest from my foot length (with my sock setup) that I'm a 43 but I'm a 44 in some brands ands a 43 1/2 in others, so a 9 1/2 imperial. 43's are always too short. Volume reducers change the shape of the boot inside but leaving the internal width unaffected so more sock has been my favoured way of adjusting fit. The final fit solution is gel insoles, such as Alt-Berg's Svartz Absorber - much more forgiving than hard insoles like Superfeet and a more stable fit, particularly noticeable upon foot placement when jumping a ditch, say - again, stopping my feet from flapping/sliding around inside the boots. Conventional lacing, apart from doing the first knot the 'wrong' way round, which locks the first bow in place. The second bow is then really only taking up excess lace length rather than really being needed to secure the first.

[beelzebub]

I will use the second lacing technikue on my new akkus

[puebespuebes]

1:30 my toes are the widest part, what must i do?

[hemanpun]

Hy!! It's me from Nepal mountain guide!!! I really like this boot, during trek i saw this boots wear by many hiker's!! hooping to get it so please let me know Pp and way to get it!!!
Loving you're channel from garden of Himalayas, NEPAL
NAMASTE!!!

[karlford]

Hi there - can’t find the chart on your website as advertised?

[wsiddiqi]

thank you - very helpful for me trying to figure out how to fit a mountaineering boot. Did anyone catch what he said in the end if the heel is still lifting - use a "volume reducer" or ?? What is a volume reducer? Never heard of this. Did he mean just cut down a sole into a small heel part and just slide that in?

[effectivemelody]

My wife bought a pair of Altberg Fremington Lights a few year ago from your shop. Your employee explained about how a boot should fit and selected a boot that he said was the correct size and assured her that was the size. After putting them on, She told your employee that they didn't feel right and they were hard and uncomfortable but he assured her they just needed wearing in. We trusted in his so called expertise and bought the boots.The boots did not wear in and were uncomfortable if not painful.She suffered years of pain with these boots. She recently took her boots to an outdoor shop in yorkshire who measured her feet and informed her that your boots were a size too small. Due to you selling her the wrong size she suffered years of foot pain.

[BODGE]

Is it best to come as late in the day as possible/go for a walk first so that the feet swell before trying on boots?

[michaelnedsmar]

I buy 2nd hand, worn a few times Brashers boots, which I find come up a little small .
As im a 12 and they dont make 13 I swop the insole for much slimmer ones.
Problem solved !