The market for women's outdoor shoes is growing rapidly, and fashion and personalization are the key to product selection

Benefiting from the social venue blockade caused by the epidemic last year, more and more people choose outdoor hiking, and outdoor products in the United States have also ushered in a wave of sales. But at present, the outdoor market still has a lot of room for growth, especially in the female market.

The women's outdoor shoes market still has a lot of room for growth

Matt Powell, senior sports industry consultant at NPD Group, said in a report assessing the performance of the U.S. sports market: "There is a huge opportunity for our industry - that is how to increase sales of women's outdoor shoes."

According to a survey conducted jointly by Civic Science and NPD, 49% of women surveyed said they planned to hike or walk more in 2021, which is higher than men, and 46% of women said they would participate in activities.

NPD data shows that in the first half of 2021, men's hiking boots accounted for 70% of sales in the category, an increase of 18% over the same period in 2019. Although women's sales are much smaller, their growth rate is higher than that of men, increasing twice as fast as men during the same period, reaching 37%. Matt Powell said that there are still hundreds of millions of dollars of market waiting to be developed in this industry.

Amazon's US search rankings also show that searches for women's hiking boots and hiking pants are also on the rise.

What do female consumers like?

According to data from the NPD Retail Tracking Service, the four largest brands of women’s hiking shoes that outperformed market trends compared to 2019 were Columbia, Salomon, Skechers and Danner. The best-selling styles for each company were the Newton Ridge Plus, Outline Mid, Trego Rocky Mountain and Mountain 600.

Matt Powell believes that it is also simple for outdoor footwear sellers to attract more female consumers: " Make shoes specifically for women and make them cute. Those are the two keys. " "Women's feet are shaped differently than men's, and they need a pair of shoes that fit them well - but it also has to be on trend. The outdoor industry often makes stupid basic shoes that don't really have a fashion element in terms of color."

Jon Zalinski, owner of Colorado-based Treadz Shoes, said his outdoor shoes are popular with women, with women's styles accounting for 60 percent of sales in the category. He also explained how he caters to the needs of female consumers.

Men always buy brown hiking shoes because the color of hiking shoes never changes. "But women, they want a different color, they want a different look, they just want something different. "

It is recommended that sellers pay attention to changes in fashion trends when selecting products, and also pay attention to choosing personalized products.

Hiking shoes

Outdoor Products

Female users