Backpacker Magazine – 2010 Editors' Choice/Gear Guide

Gear Review: Hi-Tec Renegade Trail WP Jr. Kids' Hiking Boot

A real backpacking boot for kids

by: Berne Broudy

Tags:
• Gear
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• Boots
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• Kids camping
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Kids’ Hiker
Nine-year-olds aren’t typically talkative when it comes to boot performance. So we’ll let our kid tester’s actions speak for him: He backpacked seven days and more than 50 miles through Wyoming’s Tetons and Utah’s Zion National Park in the Renegade. He hiked five to seven hours each day, then kept them on to play in camp, wearing them for 12 complaint-free hours day after day.

His dad, one of our most experienced boot testers, says this waterproof/breathable midcut is “a real backpacking boot, with good torsional rigidity and ankle and underfoot support, with high-quality construction, including brass hardware. These will get handed down twice.” Traction is outstanding: High-friction pads circle the outsole perimeter, while the center strip of tread is filled with lugs for grip on scree and loose dirt.

A steel shank provides rigidity and underfoot protection, and an EVA midsole increases cushion. The seam-sealed, waterproof suede-and-nylon upper kept the wet out, but proved a tad hot on warm days, despite a moisture-wicking lining. $50; 1 lb. 9 oz. (youth 3); kids 10-13, 1-7 (whole sizes only)

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