You should be able to purchase hiking boots the same way that you purchase everything else. What type of hiking are you going to be doing? What kind of terrain will you be trekking on? How far are you going and are you just doing sections or are you doing a through hike? All these are the same considerations that you have when buying other gear too. Some trips you might want to wear an all out hiking boot because of the terrain and some times you may want to wear a walking type shoe because of really maintained trails. Just depends a great deal where and how hard and how far you are going...sabre11004