A good pair of hiking boots is necessary if you’re heading out on the trails, but the question that pops up is: will hiking boots stretch?

Shoes tend to get stretched out when you wear them for long periods of time, which can be annoying for regular shoes, but can be a whole other matter for hiking boots.

Hiking boots do stretch, but this is not the same way as regular shoes. Hiking boots stretch in the sense that they become a lot easier to wear, but this does not make them looser or provide much wiggle room.

When it comes to regular shoes, you can replace them and be on your way, but hiking boots are supposed to be tight so they can carry out their purpose.

We took opinions from experienced hikers and did our research on what hiking boots are supposed to be like, whether they should or would stretch and what that means for your hiking trip.

How Should Hiking Boots Fit?

Unlike your regular shoes, you don’t choose how you want your hiking boots to fit. They are supposed to provide stability and comfort that makes your hike easier and more stable, and thus, if you went by personal preference, you may just find yourself in trouble.

A hiking boot is supposed to be snug everywhere – that is, all parts of the boot should be clinging to your foot. There should be just enough space to wiggle your toes – if there isn’t, you can assume that your boots are too small, and most likely unsafe too.

Since hiking boots are designed so differently, you will often find that the size you buy your regular shoes in will not be the size you need your hiking boots in. Most often, hiking boots will run small, so you should make sure to try your boots on fully fastened before you buy them to get the right size.

The only movement you can be sure of in a hiking boot is the wiggle room for your toes. Most boots will – and should! – allow that much, but any other movement will depend on the boots. Some will have greater flexibility, especially those that are meant to be worn in the warmer months, while the boots made for cold weather are generally less flexible.

Hiking boots also come with steel shanks, which provide better support. This can be uncomfortable, since they tend to restrict the positions in which you can move your feet, but are better for long hikes in steady terrain. On the other hand, in unsteady terrain where you have to be careful about your step, they can be quite difficult to use.

Nylon shanks are also available, which do not offer as much support as the steel ones, but still offer enough, with flexibility to get the job done.

Do Hiking Boots Stretch?

So, now that we know what hiking boots are like, do they stretch? And if yes, how much?

Since hiking boots are generally smaller than the shoes you usually find, you may end up in a situation where your shoes are too small, but not small enough for a larger size to be the right one. Usually, you’d just go with the smaller one, since you know shoes will stretch out over time and make it comfortable. But it’s different with hiking boots!

Since hiking boots are so much different from regular boots, they really aren’t meant to stretch that much. In fact, since hiking boots are supposed to be snug and tighter, stretching in a hiking boot is a bad thing, and can lead to you possibly losing your balance or step and falling – which on a hike, can even be fatal!

That said, hiking boots do ‘stretch’ in the sense that they expand a bit as you use them. Over the course of a few hikes, they may feel slightly less tight than they did at the start, but this expansion is so minute that you wouldn’t really be able to call it stretching.

However, you can expect that your boot’s footbed will compress after a while, especially if you hike quite often. This is also true for a few other interior components of the boots. This allows you to get some more room in the boot – enough to wiggle your toes a bit more than you should be able to, usually, but still not enough to be considered ‘spacious’.

If you find that your boots are too tight, even after you’ve used them for a couple of hikes, you probably ended up buying a smaller size, and should ideally replace them with a larger one.

That said, it’s difficult to replace a pair of boots once they’ve been worn, so you may not be able to return them to the store. However, wearing tight boots on a hike is risky! You should always make sure you’re wearing the right sized boots, or you could end up in a life threatening situation.

Don’t depend on your hiking boots to stretch out – make sure the ones you buy are comfortable enough from the start, and you’ll be good to go.