kids backpacking boots reviews

Gear Review: Vasque Breeze 2.0 Kids Boots

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Vasque Breeze 2.0 for kids
Vasque Breeze 2.0 for kids

Kids Boots
Vasque Breeze 2.0
$80, 1 lb. 10 oz. (youth 6)
Sizes: kids 10-13, youth 1-6
vasque.com

Finding boots for kids that not only look like adult boots, but are also really built like high-quality adults boots, can be like looking for an honest man in our nation’s capitol. So I was especially pleased with how well the kids’ Breeze 2.0 performed when my 13-year-old son wore them for more than a week of trekking hut to hut through Italy’s rugged Dolomite Mountains, encountering a full range of conditions: rain, mud, puddles, and snow.

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Gear Review: Loda Kody Mid GTX Junior Kids Boots

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Lowa Kody Mid GTX Junior

Kids Boots
Lowa Kody Mid GTX Junior
$160, 1 lb. 11 oz. (size US 5/Euro 38)
Sizes: Euro 27-42
lowaboots.com

My 11-year-old son—who has tested at least one model of boots every year since he began backpacking at age five—pronounced these kid backpacking boots comfortable the moment he first put them on. He then went on to sing their praises through a weeklong, hut-to-hut trek in Norway’s Jotunheimen National Park, and a five-day, 38-mile backpacking trip in Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness.

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Gear Review: Merrell Chameleon4 Mid Waterproof Kids Boots

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Merrell Chameleon4 Mid WP

Kids Hiking Boot
Merrell Chameleon4 Mid Waterproof
$75, 1 lb. 11 oz. (youth size 4)
Sizes: youth 3.5-7
merrell.com

“These feel reeeally nice,” my 11-year-old son proclaimed the first day he hiked in these boots. “They snug up close so that your whole foot is touching boot and doesn’t slip around to give you blisters. And the padding is awesome.” As a kid who has used many models of hiking shoes and boots—and tells me when he doesn’t like something (maybe too often)—he still felt that way about these mid-cut boots after five days of dayhiking and backpacking in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park, including several miles of off-trail hiking and scrambling and a technical descent of a slot canyon.

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