Hiking Boot Emoji

A brown lace-up boot with a thick, ridged sole built for rough terrain. 🥾 represents hiking, outdoor adventure, and the whole identity that comes with lacing up and heading for the trail.

The hiking boot emoji arrived in Unicode 11.0 (2018) via proposal L2/17-271, submitted by Christian Kamkoff and Jennifer 8. Lee of Emojination. The proposal argued that the only boot in the emoji set was 👢 Woman's Boot, which "was not sufficient to cover the range of boots and uses in the world today." They pointed out that 👟 Running Shoe couldn't represent hiking, and the 🚶 Walking Person was the closest activity emoji. Hikers had no footwear to call their own.

Timing-wise, 🥾 arrived just before hiking exploded. The COVID-19 pandemic drove trail use up 79% between March and July 2020. By 2024, 63 million Americans were hiking and the global hiking gear market hit $5.97 billion. Meanwhile, gorpcore turned trail boots from utility into streetwear. Salomon and Arc'teryx each passed $1 billion in annual revenue, selling hiking-inspired shoes to people who've never seen a trailhead.

🥾 lives in two worlds. The literal one: trail photos, summit selfies, AllTrails screenshots, and trip-planning group chats. "Dawn start tomorrow 🥾⛰️" is the universal hiking invite. On Instagram and TikTok, it anchors outdoor content alongside 🏕️🌲🎒.

The figurative one is newer. 🥾 shows up in gorpcore outfit posts where the boots never touch dirt. It's part of the "touch grass" energy, the Hot Girl Walk aesthetic, and Gen Z's embrace of hiking as a way to combat social isolation. Communities like Overground organize mass hikes that attract hundreds of young walkers. The boot emoji signals "I'm the kind of person who goes outside" whether or not you actually do.

The emoji proposal (L2/17-271) for a hiking boot was filed in 2017 by Emojination, the same advocacy group behind the dumpling, hijab, and interracial couple emojis. The submitters made a practical case: the emoji keyboard had 👢 Woman's Boot (heeled, fashion-oriented), 👟 Running Shoe (athletic, flat), and 🥿 Flat Shoe (casual). None worked for hiking. The closest activity emoji was 🚶 Walking Person, but walking and hiking aren't the same thing.

The proposal noted "large, and frequent demand" on social media for a hiking-related emoji, with users improvising by combining 👟⛰️ or using the boot emoji from other sets. The hiking boot was approved in Unicode 11.0 (June 2018) and shipped on phones that fall.

Its timing was accidentally perfect. Eighteen months after release, the pandemic hit. Trail counters across North America recorded a 79% surge in usage during spring and summer 2020. 81% of Americans reported getting outside that May. Hiking became the socially distanced activity that stuck, and the emoji was already waiting on the keyboard.

1. 2017Emojination files proposal L2/17-271 for a hiking/rugged boot emoji
2. 2018Approved in Unicode 11.0 / Emoji 11.0 as U+1F97E HIKING BOOT
3. 2020Pandemic drives US trail use up 79%; hiking becomes the socially distanced activity
4. 2021Hot Girl Walk trend on TikTok normalizes walking/hiking as wellness (#hotgirlwalk hits 616M views)
5. 2023Gorpcore peaks on Google Trends; Salomon and Arc'teryx each pass $1B in annual revenue
6. 2024Record 63 million Americans hike; outdoor recreation reaches 181.1M participants (58.6% of population)

Hiking culture varies wildly by country, and so does how 🥾 reads. In the US and Canada, it's the outdoor recreation default: national parks, AllTrails, trail running culture. In the UK, it maps to "hillwalking" and "rambling," with groups like The Ramblers representing a tradition that's been organized since 1935.

In Japan, hiking (登山 tozan) carries spiritual weight. Climbing Mount Fuji is a pilgrimage that 300,000 people make annually. 🥾 paired with 🗻 has that reverence.

In Gen Z circles globally, 🥾 crosses from activity to identity. The gorpcore movement made hiking boots a fashion statement in cities from Seoul to London. Salomon XT-6 sneakers sell out at hypebeast-like speeds. The boot itself became the brand, whether or not the wearer has ever seen a switchback.

• •The emoji proposal L2/17-271 was submitted by Emojination, the same group that brought us the dumpling, hijab, and interracial couple emojis. They argued the only existing boot emoji (👢) was a fashion boot with heels.
• •Trail use in North America surged 79% between March and July 2020. Average monthly trail counts jumped from 1,178 pre-pandemic to 2,075 during peak lockdowns.
• •63 million Americans went hiking in 2024, making it the most popular outdoor recreation activity in the country. That's up 5 million in four years.
• •The global hiking gear market was valued at $5.97 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $9.56 billion by 2030.
• •Despite hiking's massive popularity, there is no hiker emoji in Unicode. Many people swear they've seen one (a Mandela Effect), but it doesn't exist. 🥾 and 🚶 are the closest you get.
• •Gorpcore, the trend of wearing outdoor gear as streetwear, was coined by writer Jason Chen in 2017. It peaked on Google Trends in 2023, but Salomon and Arc'teryx's parent company reported $1.47B in Q1 2025 revenue, up 23%.
• •The Hot Girl Walk trend, which helped normalize outdoor walking as a wellness practice, hit 616 million TikTok views under the #hotgirlwalk hashtag.
• •Japan's Mount Fuji draws about 300,000 climbers every year. In Japanese, climbing it is called 登山 (tozan), and 🥾🗻 captures the pilgrimage perfectly.
• •In 2024, outdoor recreation participation in the US hit a record 181.1 million people, or 58.6% of all Americans aged 6 and older. The fastest-growing demographics: seniors (+11.5%), Black participants (+12.8%), and Hispanic participants (+11.8%).