Nike ACG Turns Its Cult Trail Runner Into a Hiking Boot That Barely Feels Like One

Nike ACG’s first hiking boot borrows almost everything from a shoe built for running ultras, and that’s precisely the point.

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• A Boot Built From a Trail Shoe’s DNA
• Inside the Stacked-Foam, Vibram Build
• Tested From Oregon to the Alps
• Part of ACG’s Bigger Comeback
• Rel

Nike ACG (All Conditions Gear) has introduced the Zegama Hike, its first dedicated hiking boot since the sub-label’s relaunch earlier this year, and the design brief was refreshingly narrow: take the Zegama Trail running shoe, a cult favorite among ACG’s trail-running base, and stretch its lightweight, responsive platform into something durable enough for multi-hour hikes without losing the feeling that made the original popular in the first place.

Brenden McAleese, Director of ACG Footwear, has described the thinking behind the boot as coming directly from athletes who already loved the Zegama Trail and pushed back against the idea that a hiking version needed to change much at all. Rather than starting from a traditional hiking-boot silhouette and trying to lighten it, ACG went the other direction, using an already-trusted running platform as the foundation and adding only what multi-hour trail use genuinely required.

That distinction matters more than it might first appear. Most hiking boots are designed from the ground up around protection and durability, with comfort and responsiveness treated as secondary concessions layered on afterward. The Zegama Hike inverts that hierarchy entirely, starting from a shoe already proven over ultra-distance running mileage and asking only how much additional structure it needs to survive a demanding, multi-hour hike rather than how much weight and stiffness a hiking boot can shed before it stops feeling like one.

Nike ACG Zegama Hike pairs ZoomX cushioning and a Vibram outsole in a rugged Black/Anthracite colorway built for long-distance trail comfort.

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The Zegama Hike is built on an entirely new, trail-specific last with added room through the forefoot and toe box, accounting for the natural foot swelling that comes with long days of hiking. Underfoot, it uses a stacked-foam construction: a plush, trail-tuned layer of ZoomX foam sits directly against the foot, cradled by a firmer, more protective foam layer that adds stability and durability on uneven ground, a direct carryover from the Zegama Trail’s own midsole architecture.

Traction comes from a Vibram Megagrip outsole, chosen specifically for reliable grip across both wet and dry surfaces, paired with a wider base and reinforced rubber coverage aimed at improving control on steep, loose descents, particularly with a loaded pack. The mid-cut upper adds rubberized overlays and reinforced toe and heel guards for durability, along with a precision-cut ankle gaiter designed to keep trail debris out without adding the bulk of a traditional boot collar, plus a best-in-class fit system built to lock the heel and ankle down through climbs and descents alike.

View, the Zegama Hike breaks from the muted, utilitarian look most hiking boots default to, launching in a mint-green colorway with distinctive ACG branding, with additional grey-toned iterations already previewed for future release.

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ACG built the Zegama Hike around real-world testing rather than lab data alone, sending prototypes out with hikers across genuinely different terrain and climates. Development testing reportedly included long-distance hikes in Oregon and treks through the Swiss Alps, fit-testing sessions with a local running club in Korea, a partnership with an urban hiking group in Los Angeles, and sessions with college athletes across multiple cities, with some testers pushing the boot through hikes lasting up to ten hours with a full pack.

That range of testing environments speaks to the boot’s core positioning: it’s meant to work as convincingly on a technical alpine trail as it does on a shorter urban hike, without requiring a different shoe for each context. McAleese has framed the approach as taking the best of Nike’s running innovation and applying it directly to a hiking solution, rather than treating hiking and trail running as entirely separate technical categories requiring entirely separate design languages.