Best Hiking Shoes and Boots for Kids 2026

Sizes: 11 Kids to 7 Kids | Waterproof: Yes (adv.DRY membrane) | Size tested: Cy, age 5, size 13 Kids

Not right for you if: your kid hikes long stretches and needs room for toes to spread out.

The Delicate Arch trail is hot, exposed, and mostly slickrock and loose gravel. Cy hiked the whole thing in these, and he never once complained about hot feet. That surprised us, because these are waterproof. Across a road trip full of lakes and streams, his feet stayed dry as long as the water stayed below the ankle.

The lugs are smaller and packed closer together than on the Speedcross, and they bit into loose gravel on the climbs. The tongue is attached at the sides, so gravel stays out, and a big heel pull tab makes them easy to get on. They feel more rugged than the Speedcross, ready for rougher trails.

The honest flaw: the toe box is rounded and a little chunky. On long days, we’d want more room for toes to spread.

The short version: The one we’d hand a parent who wants one shoe for every trail. It earned it on Delicate Arch.

Sizes: 10.5K to 7 Youth | Waterproof: No | Size tested: Cy, age 5, size 13 Kids

Not right for you if: you want a flat, roomy shoe your kid will wear every single day.

These are Cy’s daily school shoes, and he LOVES them. He pulls the quick-lace tight, then tucks the toggle into a little pocket in the tongue (a small hideaway he finds delightful). No tying, no asking for help, no arguing at the door.

Around Redfish Lake in Idaho, they handled forest trail, granite boulders, and a wooden footbridge. The lugs are the most aggressive in the lineup. And yes, he walked straight into the lake. They’re not waterproof, but they dried out quickly.

Two real flaws. The toe box tapers in hard, so there isn’t much room for toes to splay. And the 11 mm heel-to-toe drop is steep for a kid’s shoe. We’re fans of flatter, roomier shoes for kids, so we’d rotate these rather than make them the only pair.

The short version: The shoe he actually wants to wear. Just don’t make it the only pair.

Sizes: 8 to 13 Little Kids, 1 to 7 Big Kids | Waterproof: No (water shoe, drains and dries) | Size tested: Cy, age 5, size 12 Kids

Not right for you if: your hikes are long or on loose gravel and sand.

We bought these in February 2026 and they’ve been everywhere since: nature school, a Florida water park, the Painted Hills in Oregon, creek trails, and town sidewalks in Crested Butte. Cy picked the rainbow colorway out of a very long list of options.

For quick hikes where you just need to throw something on, they’re great. No socks, the same rubber toe cap as other KEENs, and an aggressive sole. Any hike that ends at a lake is their sweet spot.

The open sides let in gravel and sand. With the strap undone, the opening is still too small to slip a foot in, so you have to feed the strap back through the clasp. And there’s nowhere to tuck the bungee toggle, so it flaps. On long hikes without socks, we’d expect hot spots.

The short version: The cheapest shoe here outlasted everything else. Keep the hikes short.

Sizes: 8 to 13 Kids | Waterproof: Yes (KEEN.DRY membrane) | Size tested: Cy, age 5, size 12 Kids

Not right for you if: you want a flexible shoe that moves like a sneaker.

We asked Cy not to wear these into the water at our campsite outside Fruita, Colorado. He wore them into the water. His feet stayed dry, since the water never came over the top. Over a few months, these were his play shoes, bike shoes, school shoes, and road trip shoes, and they took a beating.

Stretchy bungee laces let him slip them on, then a hook-and-loop strap keeps his foot seated. The toe is a big wrap of rubber, the upper is leather, and the non-marking sole is a bonus if your school cares about that. Reflective bits on the sides catch a headlamp at camp.

The sole doesn’t bend much, so it’s hard to get a natural foot movement. It’s also less breathable (Cy did not care). The plastic clip on the strap looks like the weak point, though it’s been fine so far.

The short version: Armor for rocky trails. Just not the most agile shoe here.

Sizes: 10 to 7 (whole sizes) | Waterproof: Yes (DryVent membrane, not tested) | Size tested: Cy, age 5, size 12

Not right for you if: your kid carries a backpack or wants to put their own shoes on.

At first glance, these look ridiculous: a grown-up hiking boot shrunk down to kid size. Then Cy wore them across the jagged lava field at Craters of the Moon in Idaho and through a lava tube, jumping from rock to rock, and said they made him “bouncy.” His feet came out fine. The boots came out scuffed.

The toe box is roomy, the lugs are big, and there’s a topo-map print on the footbed. A big heel pull tab helps get them on. Laces let you tighten different spots for a dialed-in fit, but at five, Cy needs us to tie them. He rode his bike from camp to the trailhead in them, and they still fit his bike seat’s footrests.

They’re the heaviest pair we tested. It didn’t slow him down much, but we’d be careful adding a backpack. TNF lists them as waterproof. We didn’t test that.

The short version: Overkill for most trails. Exactly right for lava.

Sizes: 10.5K to 5.5 | Waterproof: No | Size tested: Cy, age 5, size 13 Kids

Not right for you if: your kid mostly hikes and rarely rides.

Most days we’re walking, then biking, then walking again. We wanted one shoe that could handle both, and this is it. We got these about two years ago, before we started testing gear, and did what most parents do: sized way up so he could grow into them. It worked this time. We wouldn’t do it with a hiking boot.

Three hook-and-loop straps mean Cy handles them himself. The sole is flat with no heel-to-toe drop we could feel, and there’s room for his toes, even though they run narrow. After two years there’s a little pilling on one toe and the straps are grimy. That’s it.

On a real hike, it’s a bike shoe first. The dotted sole is built for gripping pedals, not for wet rock.

The short version: The one pair that rides and walks. Not the pair for a big hike.