Before anyone jumps on me about good boots being worth the investment I already have a quality pair of hiking boots (Danner Lights) but I’m going to be sending them out to be resoled soon, estimated turnaround time will be about 5-6 weeks, and I’m just looking for a temporary pair to hold me over for whatever hiking I do for the month or so I won’t have my main boots. After which these temporary boots will probably go into the trunk of my car as part of my emergency kit to hopefully never be worn again.
Anyone got a favorite pair of cheap boots?
Small checklist I’d like to have:
Wide sizes
Waterproof
Lightweight (though I’m not expecting miracles on that front)
Preferably about a 6" height, I’m flexible on that, but generally I prefer a taller boot.
For that purpose I’d just hit up a few thrift stores and get something that works good enough.
Unfortunately thrift stores around me never seem to have much in the way of decent hiking boots, especially nothing in a wide size.
If you’re in the us goodwill has an auction site that I’ve gotten some great deals on
I’m not sure what cheap is to you, but I purchased a pair of Keen hiking boots and they are an absolute dream as I also have wider feet.
I’m pretty thrifty and try and find cheap things but I’ve been disappointed with other brands. They weren’t water proof as claimed and were like $80.00.
I decided to try keen for $150.00. No regrets. They are comfortable and have a nice size toe box so I don’t feel like my feet are squished.Here is a link, but unfortunately they went up in price. Likely because of tarriffs. Maybe you can get them somewhere else?
I’d normally call $150 fairly cheap for boots (my Danners are, after all, north of $400) but for this case I’d probably call $150 my hard upper limit for this purpose.
I’ve also had pretty good luck with keen in the pasto but it’s been a while. If it weren’t for tariffs driving up the price those would probably have been my pick.
I have a stupid little voice in my head that would like to pay half of that for this purpose, but I know I’d be really scraping the bottom of the barrel at that price, so my ideal is probably around $100
Columbia Newton Ridge II are my go to cheap boots. They’re good for wider feet, don’t need too much break in, and are pretty comfortable.