This post is a compilation of user recommended travel shoes from r/onebag, a subreddit designed to discuss the art of minimalist travel. Here users post trip reviews, packing lists, and request packing advice and product recommendations. Gear on this site is used by actual minimalist travelers who are simply trying to find good gear and have no interest in promoting a particular brand.
Skip to the best shoes for travel list
I can’t possibly test every travel shoe to determine which is the best. So to get a list of the best shoes for travel I reviewed all the “recommend me a shoe” posts on r/onebag from 2021. I dug through the comments and recorded any shoe that was recommended or endorsed as a good shoe for one bagging. While there were many more posts about specific shoes, shoe reviews, and packing lists, there were only 35 total general shoe recommendation posts (full list with links at end of post).
I’ll start with a quick One Shoe intro for anyone new to one bagging, then go over my rules and scoring method, followed by the shoe recommendations. The lists are sorted into Top Shoe Brand, Top Shoe Models, as well as by Category for Casual/walker, Running shoes, Sandals, and Boots.
There is No “One Shoe”
As stated in the 8th Commandment of One Bagging, and as attested to by many, many posts on r/onebag, there is no One Shoe to Rule Them All. There are simply too many types of trips, climates, styles, and preferences for one single pair of shoes to work for all people in all situations.
However, after sorting through many Shoe Recommendation posts, general trends begin to emerge. The same types of footwear show up again and again for different styles of travel: Business travel, leisure travel, and beach/casual. Generally, a two-shoe approach works for most people in the following situations:
- Business Travel: Comfortable dressier shoe + running shoe
- Leisure Travel: Comfortable neutral brown or black walking shoe + running shoe
- Beach/Casual: Running shoe + sandals
Running shoes are optional and you can switch them out for sandals on almost any type of trip. For cold weather, upgrade shoes to a comfortable weatherproof boot.
Rules
Not surprising, the recommendations for shoes was wide-ranging. There was overlap between styles and subjectivity as to what someone might consider a “shoe.” Many posts included a healthy mix of casual walkers, boots, sandals, running shoes etc. To make sense of the madness, I searched shoe recommendation posts using the following rules:
- Only included posts specifically about shoe recommendations. I didn’t include shoes mentioned in packing list posts or other search terms like “sneakers,” “trainers,” “sandals” etc.
- Largely didn’t include specialty or specific use shoe recommendations. For example, “shoe recommendations for a wedding” wasn’t included. I did however include more general winter, dressy, business casual, walking etc. posts.
- Didn’t include posts seeking advice about specific shoes.
- Didn’t include shoe reviews.
- Didn’t discriminate between “women’s” and “men’s” shoes. I focused on brand and model recommendations.
Scoring
My focus was on recommendations in the comments. Although a recommendation can be subjective, I tried to be consistent. If a comment mentioned “I love XXX shoe!” it would count. However, if someone said “I tried the XXX shoe on a trip” but didn’t mention whether they liked it, then I generally didn’t count it. As someone using a shoe doesn’t imply an endorsement. Replies to top-level comments were scored if it was clear they also recommended the shoe, eg. “I second this!” would count.
- Each recommendation of a shoe in the comments gets a +1 score.
- Upvotes for comments weren’t considered.
- General mentions of a brand without a specific model get a plus +1 for the brand.
Shoe Recommendations
There were over 150 different shoe models mentioned. Because of the variety of recommendations, I broke the lists up into several categories. Top Shoe Brands, Top shoe Models, and recommendations by category for Casual/Walker, Running Shoes, Sandals, and Boots. Listed in order of popularity.
Top Shoe Brands
Top recommended shoe brands (>10 mentions), regardless of style.
- Adidas
- Lems
- Vivobarefoot
- Blundstone
- Xero
- Vans
- Allbirds
- Merrell
- Altra
- Nike
- Ecco
- Salomon
- Arc’teryx
- Keen
- Teva
- Vessi
Top Mentions (>5 mentions)
- Birkenstock
- Converse
- Altama
- Crocs
- Danner
- Scarpa
- Bedrock
- Chacos
- Doc Martens
- Olukai
- Palladium
- GoRuck
- Hoka
- Tropicfeel
- Clarks
- Oboz
- Redwing
- Sketchers
- Astral Designs
Best Shoes For Travel
Top recommended shoe models of any style.
- Adidas Terrex Free Hiker
- Adidas Ultra Boost
- Vans UltraRange
- Vivobarefoot Gobi II
- Lems Boulder Boot
- Lems Primal 2
- Merrell Trail Glove
- Altama OTB Maritime Assault
- Altra Lone Peak
- Xero Z-Trail
- Adidas AX3
- Lems Nine2Five
- Scarpa Mojito
- Allbirds Tree Runners
- Arc’teryx Aerios
- Clarks Desert Boots
- Converse Chuck Taylor
- Ecco Soft 7
- Nike Free RN
- Salomon Outbound
- Salomon Outline
- Teva Urban Universal
Top Recommendations by Category
Recommendations broken up by category using my discretion. This was a shoe post, so I have more of those, but inevitably running shoes, sandals and boots slipped in.
Casual/walker
- Adidas Terrex Free Hiker
- Vans UltraRange
- Vivobarefoot Gobi II
- Lems Primal 2
- Merrel Trail Glove
- Altama OTB Maritime
- Adidas Terrex AX3
- Lems Nine2Five
- Scarpa Mojito
- Allbirds Tree Runners
Running
- Adidas Ultraboost
- Altra Lone Peak
- Nike Free RN
- Nike Pegasus
- Allbirds Tree Dashers
Sandals
- Birkenstock
- Teva
- Zero Z-Trail
- Bedrock
- Keen
Boots
- Lems Boulder Boot
- Palladium (any model)
- Redwing Iron Ranger
The Posts (in alphabetic order)
The posts I used for reference to create this post:
Almost perfect shoe…???
Alternative to Lems?
Anyone have experience with waterproof casual sneakers?
Athletic shoes for chilly wet weather (sightseeing + day hikes)
Best classy yet durable hiking shoe/boot for indefinite around the world travel?
Best Multifunctional Sandals/Shoe Minimization Help
Best Shoes to Travel With
Comfortable, wide toe box shoes, that are good for walking a lot in?
Good looking shoes for walking similar to Allbirds?
If you were to wear only one or two pairs of shoes for all your trips, which pair would it be and why?
Ladies, what is your favorite all-purpose travel shoe?
Loafer recommendation please: brown, flexible, wide toe box, not ugly
Looking for the perfect shoes/trainers for backpacking
Mens shoes: one pair of shoes for all occasions?
Multipurpose travel shoes (women) for walking, gym/ light sports, hiking that don’t look ugly af
Need the ultimate One-Shoe
One bag – one shoe – one sandal
One bagging runners of reddit – how?
One or 2 Shoe Recommendation > Hiking, Dancing, City Walking
One Shoe Suggestions
One shoe to rule them all
OneShoe Post – plain brown leather edition
Recommendation for business casual shoes that can do it all
Recommendations for an everyday walking shoe that can function as a hiking shoe?
RTW one shoe (road-to-trail)
seeking very specific shoe recommendation
Shoe for hiking + casual wear
Shoes
Shoes for all day walking
Shoes!
Shoes?
Sleek, comfortable slip on travel shoe
Very best man shoes for minimalist long travel ?
Winter One Shoes/Boots
Yet another shoe thread
