Look I get it. Hiking gear is expensive, but if you're planning to be out on the trail for an extended period of time, there's one thing you should never cheap out on. Being frugal could cost you your life.
I'm of course talking about a good pair of hiking shoes. There's plenty of cheap footwear on the market, but that doesn't mean you should slap a ratty pair of sneakers to your feet and hit the trail. Jack "Quadzilla" Jones was trying to budget when he decided to hike the Appalachian Trail. He wanted to prove that he could do it for around $1000.
"I knew I could hike the AT, that I could do 30-mile days," Jones told Outside Online. "I knew this might force me to go two weeks without a shower. It might force me to eat a whole chicken in a Walmart parking lot—and then continue on."
So as part of that, the hiker budgeted his gear. As the outlet explained, long hikes can ruin the inside and outside of the shoe quickly. That means if you're planning to hike the Appalachian, you can go through half a dozen shoes. The hike tried to save money by buying some cheap knockoffs from AliExpress.
But he was less than impressed with the gear. It didn't have good grip. Instead, he bought some discounted shoes at REI to go on the trip. "Turns out, if there's a whole bunch of used stock of a shoe," he says, "it's probably junk."
Hiking Gear Horror
Cut to the journey itself, and a plastic piece in the shoe began cutting his foot. The hiker swapped his gear for some trail runners at a store along the trail in North Carolina. However, the damage had been done. The cut soon got infected, leaving him with fever and cramps. Infection soon began spreading up his leg.
The hiker was forced to leave the trail and catch a ride to the urgent care.
"If I'd let that go for a week, I could have died. It was that serious," says Jones. "I got cut because I tried to be cheap with shoes. So there's a lesson, right? Don't cheat on footwear."
Got to be good with your gear. But Jones wanted to show that you don't need top of the line to hit the trail.
"Someone shouldn't be kept out of the outdoors because they can't afford the most 'ethical' gear," he says. "If someone's making good money, then, yes, buy all the cottage brands and support them. But there is no clear-cut answer here."
