Are you looking for a pair of hiking boots for your child with flat feet? Does your child usually complain about foot pain when it’s time to participate in high intense activities?
If your child has flat feet, you need to look for hiking boots that provide good arch support and good cushioning. However, finding a pair of hiking boots with arch support is not simply enough to keep your kids’ feet healthy, you also need to make sure that the boots fit the shape of your child’s feet correctly. This means that if your child has narrow, wide or extra wide feet, you need to find a pair of boots that can accommodate the shape of your child’s feet and provide good support at the same time.
There is a small selection of hiking boots that provide good arch support and that are capable of fitting a child with narrow, medium, wide, or extra wide feet at the same time.
I have been working for a specialized children’s shoe store for over 10 years now. This experience has afforded me many insights into children’s shoes and the way they fit. Our store specializes in shoes for children with foot and leg problems, but we provide regular shoe fittings as well. From my experience fitting thousands of kids, I have become familiar with the best hiking boots for children with flat feet.
When parents try to find a supportive hiking boot for their children with flat feet they usually find themselves staring at a wall full of shoes that look very similar and very different at the same time.
Kids hiking boots don’t come labeled as “supportive”or with “extra arch support”, so the only way to tell whether they are supportive or not is by having fitted them before.
The hiking boots I will describe shortly are also waterproof, which means that you won’t have to worry when your child jumps or passes through a puddle. Water isn’t going to affect your kids’ hiking boots in any way, as long as the boots come labeled as waterproof. It the boot doesn’t have a label that reads waterproof, then it’s because it isn’t.
These hiking boots also come with a supportive and substantial sole that will help treat your child’s overpronation. This is one of the main reasons why these boots are extremely effective in treating children with flat feet. The boots come with added support right below the arch and it extends all the way through the heel, which helps absorb shock in the heel area as well. In addition to providing good support, the boots provide excellent traction.
When children are flat footed, their feet tend to collapse and turn inwards, which usually throws their bodies out of alignment and affect their posture. If you provide your child with the correct pair of hiking boots, you will prevent your child’s feet from collapsing and turning inwards. Let me prove this to you.
If you have a flat footed child at home you will probably find this picture familiar:
Now let’s take a look at a picture of another flat footed child. Do you notice how the feet collapse and turn inwards when standing barefoot?
Now let’s take a look at an image of the same child wearing a pair of hiking boots with arch support. Do you notice how the child’s feet are not collapsing and turning inwards anymore? The arch support of the boots is preventing the child’s feet from collapsing and turning inwards.
This proves that something so simple just as providing your child with the correct pair of shoes can make a huge improvement on your child’s overall posture.
Please keep in mind that how effective the hiking boots will be in treating your child’s flat feet depends on the degree of your child’s overpronation.
In certain cases, where a child has strong overpronation, you might have to provide the child with an orthotic in addition to a good supportive boot.
I am going to provide you with a selection of the best hiking boots for kids with flat feet shortly, but first let’s make sure that you know your child’s exact foot size. I also want to show the 3 most important features that these hiking boots provide.
Hiking Boots for Flat Feet – The 3 Most Important Features!
These are the 3 most important features that your kids’ hiking boots must provide for your flat footed child:
✅ Substantial/Supportive Sole: Like I mentioned before, this is one of the most important features that your kids hiking boots must provide if your child has flat feet. Let’s take a look at an example of a hiking boot that comes with a substantial sole and arch support:
✅ Firm Heel Counter: This is the back part of the boots that provides good ankle and heel support. Take a look at the image below to visualize where the heel counter of the boots is located:
It’s also important for the boots to be well padded right below the heel area, that way we can minimize the impact that your kids’ heels take when they come in contact with the ground.
✅ Lightweight and Flexible: While the boots need to be supportive, they need to be lightweight and flexible at the same time. This will prevent your child’s feet and legs from easily getting tired. Your kids hiking boots need to bend at the ball of the foot but no further:
These are the 3 more important features, but the boots I will recommend below also provide great traction, are durable, and waterproof.
In order to get the full benefits that the hiking boots have to offer, you need to provide your child with the correct boot size, which involves getting the correct shoe length and the correct shoe width.
Hiking boots that are too short or too narrow will make your kids’ toes rub against one another or the front or side of the shoes. On the other hand, hiking boots that are too long or too wide will allow for too much foot movement inside the boots, and that constant rubbing and friction between your kids’ feet and the boots can lead to blisters, calluses, and corns.
This is why it’s so important to get the correct boot size. I want to emphasize that it doesn’t matter how many features a particular shoe style provides, if the shoes are not the correct size, your child won’t get any of the benefits that the shoes have to offer.
This is the reason why I always recommend parents to take their children to be properly fitted for shoes at their local shoe store, where a shoe fitter can properly measure their feet and find shoes accordingly. However, most specialized children’s shoe stores have been closing down, and parents need to either buy their kids’ shoes online or have them fitted at big retailers.
Start by taking a look at a map thatI created that showcases the best children’s shoe store by state. Go to the link below:
The Best Kids’ Shoe Stores In The United States – Where To Go For Proper Fittings
If after looking at that map you still can’t seem to find a shoe store in your area, then take a look at an article along with a video I created where I describe the simplest, yet most effective way to figure out your child’s exact foot size from home. Go to the link below:
How To Measure Kids Shoe Size From Home – In Less Than 30 Seconds!
Now that you know what features your kids’ hiking boots must provide and how to figure out your child’s exact foot size from home, you are ready to take a look at a selection of the best hiking boots for kids with flat feet.
Best Hiking Boots for Kids with Flat Feet ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The hiking boots that I recommend are the ones I have fitted before, since that is the only way for me to tell how well-made they are, the amount of support that they provide, and how they fit.
Below you can find a selection of the best hiking boots for kids with flat feet. Disclosure: Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases.
Toddler/Little Kid M
Toddler/Little Kid MLittle Kid M,W,XWLittle/Big Kid M,W,XWLittle/Big Kid M,W,XWLittle/Big Kid M,W,XW
All of these hiking boots fit “true to size”,which means that you need to provide your child with a half a size longer (3/8 of an inch) of the size that your child measured at the foot measuring scale in order to allow for growing room.
If your child happens to have NARROW FEET, please contact me directly and I will send you specific boot recommendations: fittingchildrensshoes@gmail.com
It’s important that you lace the shoelaces of your kids’ hiking boots properly, since that will provide your child with better support and stability. One common issue that kids complain when wearing hiking boots is how their heels tend to slip off.
There is a particular shoe tying technique method that I use, especially for children with narrow heels. I also use this method when children wear orthotics inside their shoes, since it helps keeping the orthotics in place and prevents the heel from slipping off the shoes.
Let me show you how this shoe tying technique works.
✅ Start by lacing up your kids’ hiking boots as you would normally do but leave the first top two holes (eyelets) of the shoes unlaced.
✅ Loop the lace through the top hole first as shown in the image below.
✅ Loop the lace through the hole that we left open and make sure you tie them properly.
This method will push your kids’ feet back, securing the heels against the back of the boots, which will fill up any remaining gap and prevent your child’s heel from slipping off the boots.
Hiking socks play a key role in keeping your child’s feet healthy. While I can’t get into too much detail about the best hiking socks for kids, you should take a look at another article I wrote that explains this in more detail. Go to the link below:
The Best Hiking Socks for Kids – Breathable and with Extra Cushion in Targeted Areas of the Feet!
If you happen to need any other type of shoes with arch support such as sneakers, sandals, or dress shoes, please do not hesitate to contact and I will help you find them.
If you have found a particular shoe brand or shoe style that has worked well for your flat footed child, please share your findings below so other parents can benefit from your experiences.
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