Lowa’s beloved Renegade GTX Mid hiking boots are comfortable, reasonably lightweight and incredibly durable walking boots that fully enclose your foot and ankle for maximum protection — and make easy work of our wet, muddy and slippery British hills.

Lowa Renegade GTX Mid hiking boots

Ideal for: Hiking, backpacking, thru-hikes, four-season UK adventuring.

Not suitable for: Running, bikepacking, high-altitude mountaineering (not crampon compatible)

Oddly stylish for a technical walking boot, the Lowa Renegade GTX Mids are very comfortable over long distances, super supportive, and great on both multi-day thru hikes across technical terrain or short jaunts across wet moorland.

The Good

Great looking boots

Very waterproof

Comfortable

Grippy Vibram soles

Unrivalled support for weight

The Bad

Take a very long time to dry out when they get wet

We had to repair the seal around the right sole after around 250 km

Laces snapped after around 500 km

Lowa Renegade GTX Mid hiking boots long-term review

The Lowa Renegade GTX Mids are Lowa’s flagship hiking boots. Designed to be an effective all-rounder for use on both easy day hikes or long thru-hikes across changing technical terrain, the boots come with a series of features that do well to deliver on this brief — ranging from a durable Vibram sole that performs well on everything from deep muddy tracks to slick rock and snow, a malleable nubuck leather upper that moulds to your feet for maximum comfort, and a breathable Gore-Tex liner that does an excellent job at keeping your feet dry.

Renowned for being some of the most reliable boots on the market, you’ve probably already seen them, even if you don’t know it. Just head out into the mountains of the Lake District at any time of the year and we bet that you’ll spot at least one pair. Or go for a hike somewhere in the Swiss Alps — where the Renegades come from and the landscapes the boots were built for — and you could be convinced they’re some sort of state-mandated uniform. This ubiquity isn’t without reason, however, as the Renegades are such a great all-round mountain boot that for many of us, they’re the only ankle-high boot we’ll ever need. Climbing Crib Goch in the summer? Lace up the Renegades. Hiking the Skye Trail during a rainy Scottish autumn? Lace up the Renegades. Heading to a muddy music festival? Lace up the Renegades.

Weighing 585 g per boot, we think the Lowa Renegade GTX Mids are actually reasonably lightweight for the level of support they offer. Weighing only 50 grams more per shoe than the Altra Olympus 5 and 150 grams more per shoe than the substantially less-supportive Salamon X Ultra 4 Mid Gore-Tex boots, the Renegades strike a delicate balance between durability, support and weight. In fact, you can be easily convinced that these boots weigh twice as much as they actually do when you look at the thickness of the sole, the overlapping nubuck panels and the thick upper padding. It’s as if every element of the boot has been designed to provide maximum performance per gram of shoe, and there are few areas where the shoe is lacking, in our opinion.

When bought directly from Lowa, the Renegade GTX Mids cost £215 at the time of writing. We’ve seen these available for as little as £120 during numerous sales throughout the year, however, so it’s worth shopping around and hunting down a bargain.

Our experience using the Lowa Renegade GTX Mid hiking boots

We’ve been using the Lowa Renegade GTX Mids for many years now. In fact, our most recent pair has clocked up almost 800 miles (795 to be exact), and even though around 200 of these miles have been through the Swiss, Austrian and German Alps, The Black Forest and several US national parks, the vast majority of their use has been in UK conditions. In total, we’ve used the boots in all four seasons, we’ve had them on during hikes in 30-degree Celsius bluebird conditions, we’ve worn them on multi-day treks in torrential rain, and we’ve even used them on some winter mountaineering trips in the Cairngorms. All in, we’ve worn them on hikes and camping trips in the Lakes, Eryri, Bannau Brycheiniog, Dartmoor, The Cairngorms, Loch Lomond and the South Downs national parks, as well as on trips to numerous AONBs across the UK in spring, summer, autumn and winter. So here’s what we think after all that time.

Comfort

Firstly, the Lowa Renegades GTX Mids are very comfortable boots. Due to the soft nubuck upper and the reasonably rigid soles, you can easily walk for miles in these without feeling any pain. In fact, the only time we ever started to feel some aches in our feet was after carrying a 16 kg over 36 miles shortly after we bought them. Since that trip, however, we’ve repeated that feat a few times and never felt anything similar — so we’ll put that down to not having broken them in properly.

Due to the support they provide, they’re also consistently comfortable. Whether you’re charging up a grassy hillside, powering downhill through piles of scree, or scrambling over slippery rock, the feel of the fit never changes. You always feel safe and secure, and the grip provided is beautifully confidence-inducing. Naturally, you still need to be careful on slick rock, when walking over ice or when descending in exceedingly muddy conditions, but we’ve found that they consistently provide exceptional support, more than the likes of the Salamon Ultra 4 GTX Mids.

Waterproofness and breathability

The Lowa Renegade GTX Mids also come with a Gore-Tex membrane which guarantees enhanced breathability and industry-leading waterproofness. And after all our years of walking in them, these boots have never leaked once: We’ve waded through water, had our feet submerged in wet bogs and powered through rainstorms, and our feet have never gotten wet once. In fact, the only time they wet out was after wading through dewy grass one summer’s morning in the Brecon Beacons when wearing only shorts. Unfortunately, the moisture on the grass soaked into the cushioning around the top of the boot which is intentionally not waterproof. This resulted in water soaking through to the inside that was impossible to dry out in the field. As this was pure user error, however, we certainly won’t deduct any points from Lowa for this and have taken to wearing them under a pair of waterproof gaiters when trekking through wet grass that comes up above the ankle.

Due to the solid water-tight nature of the boots, that does mean that they are slightly less breathable than the likes of the Salamon Ultras. In the UK, we’ve never felt that this was an issue whatsoever, and we’ve happily hiked for days in 30-degree temperatures without our feet getting uncomfortably warm. In these rare conditions, however, a certain degree of clamminess is to be expected, but we’ve always found that any trapped moisture dries out through the night, leaving you with dry boots by the morning.

Unfortunately, as with most waterproof hiking boots, the inside of the Lowa Renegade hiking boots take a very long time to dry out when they get wet. In our experience, anything less than a full 24 hours on top of a radiator won’t do the trick, but it could even take much longer if they’ve been fully submerged in water.

Durability

When it comes to durability, the Renegades are for the most part very durable. With the exception of the laces, which broke fairly quickly on our latest boots, the rest of the Renegades have stood up well to a lot of abuse on the trail. That being said, the seal around the sole near the toe end of the right boot did crack and open after a particularly challenging few days in Eryri after around 150 miles of wear. To fix this, we popped along to a local cobbler who recommended just running some normal store-bought superglue around the rim of the sole, which we did. And despite thinking this felt like a lazy repair job at the time, we’ve not had any issues since, nor have we seen anything resembling this damage on the left boot.

Warmth

When paired with a pair of thick walking socks, such as a pair of Darn Tough heavyweight hiking socks, we’ve found the Lowa Renegade GTX Mids are plenty warm enough to use on snowy days, on cold mountaineering trips, or even on snowshoeing tescapades. What’s more, when paired with a pair of lightweight socks, we’ve found the Renegades to be more than comfortable on the hottest summer days — making them an ideal all-rounder and, potentially, the only walking boots you’ll ever need.

Lowa Renegade GTX Mid hiking boots FAQ

Conclusion

Overall, we’ve really enjoyed using the Lowa Renegade GTX Mids over the last few years. In fact, the second these ones fail (which we don’t expect to be any time soon), we’d happily invest in a new pair — which, hopefully, speaks volumes for how we feel about them. They’re great looking, exceptionally comfortable and very supportive, and they work well in such a wide range of conditions that, for the UK, they can quickly become the one and only walking boot you’ll ever need.