Good day,
I am a new hiker and want to do a 5 day hike in December. I need to buy hiking boots and also have them fitted with inserts for my feet, we’re can I start and who can I contact.
Regards
Joe Janse van Rensburg
Cell 083 405 0663
Hi Joe -
A great question!!
It can depend on what kind of hiking you are going to do - extreme Drakensberg passes to Kalahari sand wanking and The Fish River are all very different and could affect what you need. Also how often will you be doing serious hiking, monthly trips compared to yearly trips etc.
I tend to do Drakensberg passes 2x a year and also use the boots for bush walking / hunting / wingshooting in the Free State, and they are my bee keeping boots as well as general garden work - so I like to have good ankle support, good arch support and a leather boot that wont pick up grass seeds and be relatively water resistant (heavy dew and wet grass), BUT can drain if the boots do get wet.
- My boot history - started out in the 1980 - 1990s with T2 and T3 from a place in Stellenbosch, these were hard boots and hard on your feet, but offered great support and were indestructible!
- Nice pair of La Sportiva leather boots i used for a few day trips then The Fish River, they worked well but I tossed them in the bin at the end of the hike, stitching breaking and sole breaking away etc
- Wolverine Rangers - GREAT boot - lasted many (8) years of bush walking, Magaliesberg and N Cape hiking. Finally the stitching broke and I threw them away.
- Lamatre steel toe safety boots - these were the BEST boots I ever owned - sadly they are no longer being made! Drakenseberg, Bush walking, Mpumalanga, N Cape, E Cape, Free State, endless construction sites etc - these boots were astoundingly good. I finally wore the rubber off the soles and cold not replace hem as they were out of production I binned these in 2024. At the time (2016) I paid around R650 for them!
I recently spent 6 weeks looking for new boots and found the process frustrating.
Honestly I was totally disgusted with some of the imported fancy brands - “La” “Me” “Sl” I had a R5k budge and was excited to upgrade to a decent pair of boots…. well, Iv seen better quality at Mr Price… so if these “fancy boots” work for you - great, but don’t presume that imported fancy is better!
10 months later and Im still grumpy about this…..!
I found the Kway brand boots good enough for day hiking and will serve for infrequent Berg hikes, but for long intense hiking the arch support is lacking. HiTec are great and are a great price and also can assist with inserts etc The issue I found with the HiTech boots was that the laces went right down over the toes and the eyelets dug into the top of the foot and toes when walking - a problem with most of the international brands with this type of low lace design too! if you find that these fit your feet - these are great all round boots at a good price.
I ended up with CAT Chakka boots - nice leather uppers with intense arch support and good enough ankle support and at a good price (about R2200).
After I purchased my CATs i went to try on the JCB Hiker boot - WOW these are great! I am doing a berg hike at the end of the month and again end October - so I may just convert the CATs to leisure wear and get the JCB for October…
It is a personal choice and we all have very different feet and different needs.
My personal order of boots that I found fitted me well is - JCB, CAT, Hitec, Groundcover, Jim Green, Kway. (with these following very much at the bottom of the list, with the takkies!) Lamatre, LaSportiva, Merryl, Slalomon
For a beginner Id recommend that you go into one of the HiTech stores and spend a good hour or so trying on different boots, also do the same at the larger out door stores and try the different brands. Most brands have easily removable and replaceable inner sole inserts (Be careful here too - the solid molded rubber type are good, like the ones that come with the boots… the gel type I find turn to mush after a few hours…I ditched a set of these in the N Cape and just used the boots without any innersole)
Points I find important for me when hiking…
- I don’t like water proof boots - we are not in Canada or Europe where its always wet and cold, and I find that in the rain, water runs down the legs and into the top of the boot and in no time you are walking in water inside your boots that is not draining out.
- I tend to get blisters on my toes when going down hill if the boots are too tight around the toes - I surprisingly found the toe capped boots great as the toe box was wide and open.
- After a long hard hike my arches are weaker than when I started so arch support is important - also as the foot arch flattens, so the foo gets wider so watch out for blister points on the sides of the foot and toes.
- Ankle support is essential if you are not a seasoned hiker with tough ankles! It seems that the most common injury among my hiking friends are ankle injuries!
Possibly also look into a decent pair of trail runners - here Slalomon and Merryl top my list with Hitec in as a close third!
Give yourself a good 3 weeks to do the research and try then all on - then about 3 months of knocking around at home and dog walks to get used to them.
Good luck and have fun!!! 
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