Australian Hiker

It doesn’t take long for hikers to realise how important footwear is to hiking and while I put a lot of thought and consideration into every piece of gear I choose to take on a long distance hike, without a doubt I put the most effort into choosing my footwear. Once I find footwear that I’m happy with I will stick with them until the company manufacturing them replaces them with a different model or I find something better.

1. First and foremost fit and comfort come above all else!
2. Durability. While durability is the second consideration after fit and comfort I try to go for a shoe that will provide me with as much use as I can. In the past I have used supremely comfortable footwear that has only last 450km!
3. Easy to purchase. I want to be able to get a replacement pair of shoes quickly and easily and as the proud owner of size 15US feet this will often mean online purchasing as most stores typically don’t carry these in stock.
4. If necessary can I wear my chosen footwear with heavy duty gaiters?
5. Appearance, including colour. Purely a vanity consideration, but hey I like to feel good when wearing any piece of clothing.

Over the past few years I have gravitated toward the Topo Athletic Brand as they make shoes in my size and I can source them online in a reasonably quick manner. In addition every pair of Topo’s that I have owned, and it’s been a few over the years, has lasted me around 1200km of on trail use.

My current shoe of choice is the Topo Athletic Vista which is one of their newer models in the range. The pair pictured in this post turned up a few weeks ago ready for the Heysen Trail in late July, and are the third pair of this model I have used. Pair one lasted me 1200km, pair two which I started wearing for the Great South West Walk earlier this year are still in use and have about 500km on them and are still going strong.

These are a heavily cushioned shoes with a 5mm drop that as is the case with other Topo models has a wide toe box. While I wont be using heavy duty gaiters on the Heysen Trail the Vistas can cope with them as Topo provides a narrow gap in the sole tread to allow for the gaiter strap to fit. These trail runners can also be worn straight out of the box and I’ve always found that with Topo’s there isn’t a need to wear them in.  This new pair will go into use at the start of the Heysen Trail and given that this trail is around 1200km in length this pair will last me for the entire trip.

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