Customer Reviews Hoka Challenger Mid GORE-TEX®

I ordered these because I had good experience with the Clifton shoes (I'm on my third pair and will buy more) and these waterproof mid-height boots were advertised as being based on the Clifton platform. The boots appear to be well made, but have some issues that will result in my returning them. 1) the sizing is different. My Cliftons are all 12.5 Wide and fit fine, but the boots in the same size are too wide and too long. 2) The footbed is creating a pressure point on my left foot, 3) The hooks at the top of the lacing pattern will not hold the laces long enough to tie a knot and they are frustrating to get the lace into. The hooks are poorly designed, an apparent attempt to re-engineer for brand distinction something that already worked great on many other boot brands I have owned.

But the most annoying thing about these boots is the top 4 lace loops! Totally useless because it is very difficult for the lace to stay looped while you attempt to loop the opposite lace. I thought the lace system might improve with time, not so. You still make a great shoe!

The "C" hooks for the laces are very difficult to use. I read reviews about these hooks prior to my purchase but ignored the reviews. They were right! I would advise Hoka to get rid of the "C"hooks and put in regular hiking boot hooks. If you have a bad back don't buy these shoes. It's almost impossible to use the "C" hooks to tie the boot up at the very top. I also bought the wide width size. They were still a little tight. Hoka needs to make the width sizes more true to footwear standards.

I love these boots from the sole down. They are fairly plush and I get good relief from my neuroma (pinched nerve in the forefoot). I ordered the wide size and they are imperceptibly wider than regular shoes--if you have wide feet, keep on looking elsewhere. I hate the hardware, lacing system, and ankle area. The laces themselves suck. They are a flat lace that has a tendency to be difficult to tie and comes untied easily. There hardware that the laces run through are terrible. The lower eyelets bind the laces, which is probably great if you like to set the tension in the laces and you count on them being that tight all day. But as far as taking the boot on or off, I have to manually work at releasing the laces through 4-5 eyelets down the boot to get my foot out. The ankle area is poorly designed in that it always seems to rub in the wrong spots, and I have to intentionally pull the tongue up high or else the laces run over the top of the tongue. But the feature that I hate the most is the upper 2 "hooks" that are part of the lacing system. Most boots have hooks that you can easily catch the laces in and then pull tight, but the Hoka hooks require you to align and then wiggle the laces into. Sure, it takes all of 5 seconds to get things lined up, but I find it inconvenient and unnecessarily fiddly. I am still on the fence if I will keep or return these boots. I hope they will work out for you!

They fit wonderful, have enough arch support and cushioning. However, across the ankle there is a harm seam that digs into my right ankle and is painful. I'm trying different lacing options and some padded moleskin to try and make them work because otherwise they are great.

Normally a big fan, I wear Hoka is 98% of the time. However the Challenger boot I have, purchased last year, has a terrible upper design. Specifically the tongue is strangely designed; it neither tucks behind the laces nor sits on top of them, and perhaps worst of all, the "speed lace" hooks totally suck. They are anti-speed. The laces simply do not want to get hooked; consequently they are a pain to lace up, every single time. The Kaha is a better boot but it is like they went out of their way to make this one worse to justify the higher price point on that one.

I have Bondi 6 in wide, best shoes I own. Bought these in the same size. Returned because the toe box was too small.

I LIKE THIS SHOE BUT ITS SO HARD TO GET YOUR FOOT IN IT. LIKE THE OPENING IS TO SMALL....I HAVE THE SIZE 11 REGULAR. I HAVE NEVER HAD A SHOE LIKE THAT....I HAVE had SHOES THAT WERE TO TIGHT TO FIT BUT NOT THE OPENING.

Top Two hooks do not work well on laces I walk 2 miles a day and they are a great shoe but a pain to lace up.

I walk 8-10 miles a day. The Challenger is an okay mid-height, but I am uncertain yet whether or not I would purchase it again, or even recommend it. The hooks for the top two eyelets are poorly designed and problematic when lacing up. It seems someone designed for cuteness rather than function. There is either not enough shoe material at the ankle, or the tongue is too narrow, but there is barely enough material for the two to overlap and this effects comfort and causes the need for adjustments and re-tyeing throughout the day, which I have never had before. If you are going to make a shoe for such a narrow ankle you should probably state that in the item description. The Hoka One One sole and footbed is the usual exceptional support and quality, unfortunately the negatives will only allow three stars.

This boot is very comfortable, once you're able to lace it up. The top two eyelets are boot hooks that do not keep the lace in while tying. Once you loosen tension on the lace it falls out and you have to start over again. The top eyelet is too close to the top of the boot. If you choose to use it as I do, the lace slips and rubs your ankle.

Unfortunately the shoe felt narrower than expected. Comfort was ok. My feet will hurt.

Please change out the top two lacing hooks with normal eyelets. These hooks don't work. Takes very long to get the laces to stay in hooks and takes away from the support at the ankle.

The shoe itself is OK. The laces are very stiff (waxed?) and difficult to cinch up. Also, the plastic eyelet design is not very open, making it pretty hard to thread the lace through the eyelet.

I loved the way it looks, I didn't wear it yet, size was too small

I have other Hoka shoes, but these Challenger Mid Gore-Tex were a too narrow 2E. They're built well and I would have loved to have seen how they performed for me, but alas it was not to be.

I ordered the wide, and it was still not wide enough. The comfort level is there, but since the side of my foot still hangs off the side of the shoe, it feels like I'm going to turn my ankle. My custom orthotics did fit great in the shoe. Also, the laces seem to have a rubber in them which makes loosening them difficult. The eyelets at the top aren't great. Have to get the lace in sideways or it doesn't fit. The squishy comfort level is there, just didn't work for me.

Hiked Camelback in Phoenix and then in Grand Canyon South Kiabob trail and back up Bright Angel Trail. Shoes are Lightweight and provided great support. Shoes are breathable so my feet were not too hot on these hikes in early June. However the treads on the bottom of the left sole began to fall off on the hike down South Kiabob. About 25% of treads had fallen off of the left sole by the time I completed the hike back up Bright Angel Trail

I am on my second pair and I love the fit and cushing comfort but they are not durable enough to use for hiking. the second pair didn't last 10 hikes before the rubber sole peels off the foam cushioning. I really hate that Hoka does not offer wide width sizes in some of their other hiking boots. I am reluctantly moving to another brand that is more durable and hopefully as comfortable.

Ordered the wide width of this hiking boot. Have had many pairs of other Hokas in wide and all fit fine. The insole itself is narrower than the one in my wide Hokas. How can you make such good running shoes and such bad hikers? I suspect part of the reason is the Gore-Tex liner which shrinks the interior space. If you made an extra wide they might work.

This "boot" is a mid cut version of the Challenger ATR shoe. It has a synthetic upper which encloses the foot comfortably. The problem is that the outsole is incredibly soft, and with even minor wear (say 2-3 hrs weekly) it breaks down. There's no way it can be called a hiking boot. I just don't understand why Hoka doesn't employ a hard Vibram or other outsole which would make this last much longer.

I work in corrections and I have wore these for less than a month and the sole is falling apart. The boots are very comfortable but the durability is poor.

The boot is good however, the leasing system on the upper part of the boat is horrible

As expected, the boot generally feels like the Challenger 5 shoe but with a mid height. I absolutely *love* the Challenger shoe, and this was my first time purchasing a lightweight, shoe-style boot specifically for off-road and off-trail use. Unfortunately, they're not terribly useful on actual hikes, and I'll be going back to other brands (primarily Keen) when going on hikes whose terrain requires boots rather than shoes. While I didn't experience the lacing issues that other reviewers mentioned, it did feel like the plastic around the ankle eyelets was cutting into the joint a bit, which necessitated adjusting and re-tying multiple times at the outset. The biggest drawback that I found with these boots, though, was the complete lack of grip when it came to any surface beyond dry, improved trails. I used them on one hike -- up and down Mt. Monadnock, which is not an overly technical hike by any means -- and was slipping and sliding the whole way in both directions. This hasn't been my experience when I've hiked in the Challenger ATR shoes, which suggests that the additional mass and unwieldiness of the boot upper is a major factor in the lack of control and grip (the Challenger shoe isn't sticky or superb for rocks or technical terrain by any means, but they offer enough control to make that trade-off worthwhile at times). A true hiking sole would likely make a world of difference here, but based on my experience with this boot as currently constructed, I won't really be able to use them again, and I can't really recommend them to anybody else, either.

Planned on hiking. But did not like how laced up or how felt above ankles