When you’re hiking, you want a shoe that’s cushioned, supportive, and grippy. However, the classic hiking boot can feel out of place post-hike out and about. Enter the approach shoe. Approach shoes share characteristics with hiking boots and rock climbing shoes—designed for climbers who need to hike rugged, rocky trails to get to the cliff base but don’t want to lug heavy boots while they’re climbing. Over the past few years, these specially designed hybrid shoes have grown in popularity to appeal to a wider outdoorsy audience because they provide that hiking-ready support in a compact, stylish package.
Professional climber and author of the new children’s climbing book How to Solve a Problem, Ashima Shiraishi says she’s noticed the popularity of approach shoes surge especially over the past two years. “I think it’s because of their looks,” she says, which she describes as being not too out-there. “You’re not expected to hike Everest in those shoes, but they offer that balance where you look like you’re going to go outside.”
Pre-pandemic, Natalie Sheffield, substitute teacher and part-time Outward Bound instructor in Salt Lake City, also noticed the approach shoe becoming a standard style around town, even among people who aren’t typically climbers.
In the climbing community, these adventure-ready shoes also began migrating to the lifestyle scene in gyms prior to the pandemic. Jeremy Yee, the general manager of Touchstone’s Diablo Rock Gym in California, used to wear his approach shoes into work almost every day before it closed during quarantine. Over his 10 years in the climbing industry, Yee notes that approach shoes went from resembling a scaled-down hiking boot to looking like something you can feel comfortable wearing every day.
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