Hiking Kit
The Trail-To-Town
Stylish gear that fits your every day.
If you’re lucky enough to live near trails, you know how well hiking can fit into a daily routine. A quick morning loop before errands, an after-work jaunt followed by dinner out with friends, or anything in between. If this sounds like your kind of hiking, it’s worth having a kit that’s as versatile as your day. The picks below represent our favorite town-to-trail—and back again—essentials.
Danner Trail 2650 ($190)
Patagonia Refugio 26L ($115)
Mountain Hardwear Stretchdown Hoody ($350)
Patagonia Torrentshell 3L ($189)
Freefly Bamboo Shade Hoodie ($78)
Kuhl Renegade ($109)
Platypus DayCap In-Bottle Filter ($50)
Stylish yet impressively capable, the Trail 2650 offers a great balance of protection, stability, and comfort. It’s sturdy enough for uneven terrain yet cushioned and lightweight enough for all-day wear. The price is high—but so too is the quality.
Comfort
Support and Stability
Traction
Durability
Foot Protection
Sustainability
This daypack does it all, with features ranging from a hydration bladder hanger and breathable back panel to a removable laptop sleeve and bike light attachment. It doesn’t have a hipbelt, which can be a plus or minus depending on your use case.
A stretch-nylon shell makes this unique down jacket extra durable, comfortable, and a great choice for daily wear and hard use like camping, cragging, and outdoor work. It’s a bit too heavy and bulky to bring deep into the backcountry.
Warmth
Weight & Packability
Comfort
Durability
Weather Resistance
Sustainability
The Torrentshell is Patagonia's classic daily driver rain jacket. The thick, long-lasting shell and knit backer make it protective, durable, and moisture-wicking. However, it’s too bulky and stiff for when you want unhindered freedom of movement.
Weather Protection
Comfort
Breathability
Weight & Packability
Durability
Sustainability
Natural odor resistance and a buttery drape make bamboo one of our favorite natural fabrics, especially for sun protection shirts. The Bamboo Shade’s structured fit, clean finish, and stylish colorways make it a suitable pick for both trail and town.
The men’s Renegade sits at the top of Kuhl’s lineup as a technical, all-around hiking pant, great for warm-weather hiking. Like most of Kuhl’s products, it looks great around town, too. We do wish the Renegade had more zippered storage and an integrated belt at the waist.
Comfort & Mobility
Durability
Breathability
Weather Resistance
Features
Sustainability
The DayCap turns your Nalgene (or wide-mouth Hydro Flask or Yeti) into a water-filtering machine, no squeezing, pumping, or waiting required. The filter is easy to clean and replace, too.
How We Built the Trail-to-Town Hiking Kit
If you’ve landed on this page, there’s a good chance you live, or frequently visit, somewhere with trails close at hand. This guide isn’t just for folks in Bend, Bozeman, Bellingham, or Boulder—it’s also for Portlanders who roam Forest Park’s 80+ miles of trails, Vegas dwellers sneaking quick sessions at Red Rocks, and anyone in Western North Carolina with the Blue Ridge Mountains at their doorstep. The gear we chose emphasizes versatility and function across both urban and natural environments, helping you move seamlessly between the two with as little friction as possible.
We put it right in the title: gear that performs equally well on and off the trail. We hand-picked each item with an eye for comfortable materials you’ll want to wear all day, fits that aren’t overly technical or trim, and durable fabrics that hold up to daily use. And while trail fashion has gone mainstream, we’d be lying if we said we didn’t give extra points to gear that both performs well and looks good.
Down Jacket
Take the Mountain Hardwear Stretchdown Hoody. Its stretchy, durable shell is a far cry from the shiny, plasticky look of many technical down jackets. Our tester described it as “a workwear jacket with insulation,” and it shrugged off his daily trips to the woodpile without issue. Not only did it withstand hard daily use, but it was also cozy enough to replace his cotton hoodies for at-home lounging—this is a common occurrence with soft synthetic insulated jackets like the Patagonia Nano-Air and Arc’teryx Proton series, but represents a rare level of comfort for a down jacket.
Rain Jacket
The Patagonia Torrentshell 3L is another classic example of trail-to-town versatility: its burly 50-denier, 3-layer shell offers real weather protection, yet the roomy fit layers easily over bulky sweaters, and the hemline pockets add a casual touch. All told, jackets like the Torrentshell (the Mountain Hardwear Threshold and Kuhl Stretch Voyager are a few others) are a welcome contrast to fragile, trim-fitting alpine shells with hipbelt-compatible pockets high on the torso.
Hiking Pants
Next-to-skin layers in our Trail-to-Town Kit also strike a fine balance of comfort, performance, and style. The Kuhl Renegade's stretchy fabric is remarkably comfortable, but the pants retain a casual, laid-back look that’s not out of place in town. Our tester, Mikhail, lives in New York City and noted that the Kuhl Renegade can pair with a button-up shirt for a night on the town or get the job done on a multi-day backpacking trip—now that’s versatility. Style is in the eye of the beholder, but other hiking pants that seem to nail this trifecta include the Prana Stretch Zion (men's) and Halle (women's), and Patagonia Terrebonne Jogger.
Sun Protection Shirt
We love natural fibers for this category—t-shirts or sun protection shirts made with merino, bamboo, modal, or lyocell will always be our top choices for trail-to-town use. These offer similar breathability and moisture control to polyester, but feel a lot better next to the skin and don’t collect odors, which might be the most important factor. The Freefly Bamboo Shade Hoodie is an easy yes, but other suitable options include the Ridge Merino Pursuit Hoodie (for a little extra warmth) and Patagonia Tropic Comfort Natural Sun Hoody.
Footwear
Choosing the best footwear for this kit set off no shortage of debate within the Better Trail team. Trail runners are our top picks for short day hikes, but they unfortunately lack the trail-to-town style and toughness we’re seeking. We won’t fault you if you choose to go that route; if you do, some of our top picks include the Brooks Cascadia 19, La Sportiva Prodigio Max, and NNormal Tomir 02. But if you’re trying to nail the holy trifecta (performance, comfort, and style), the Danner Trail 2650 is an absolute shoo-in (no pun intended), merging an eye-catching design with a low weight, grippy sole, and suede upper built to last.
Backpack & Other Gear
Our backpack and water filter picks round out the collection’s everyday utility. The Patagonia Refugio 26L’s breathable backpanel and smart storage layout (complete with a hydration reservoir hanger and external bottle pockets) make it capable for short hikes—yet it quickly transforms into a school/work bag when you add in the laptop sleeve. Likewise, the Platypus DayCap water filter attaches directly to your favorite wide-mouth bottle (including Yeti, Hydro Flask, and Nalgene), and the filter component removes with a quick twist when you’re back in town.
In the end, the Trail-to-Town Kit is all about versatility—good for your daily rhythm, your wallet, and the planet. As anyone with a busy life can attest, reducing the time and hassle it takes to get outside will buy you a lot more time on the trail. And if one rain jacket, down jacket, or daypack can cover both worlds, you’re saving significant cash. Finally, versatility is indeed a form of sustainability: One of the most obvious ways to reduce your impact is by purchasing less, and do-it-all pieces make this possible.
It shouldn’t come as too big a surprise that our Trail-to-Town Kit lags behind most of our other kits in terms of technical performance. You won’t want to go too fast or too far with this setup: none of the gear is exceptionally lightweight compared to more specialized options, and neither breathability nor freedom of movement is its strong suit (these trade-offs are most evident in the Patagonia Torrentshell 3L rain jacket and Mountain Hardwear Stretchdown Hoody).
Our backpack and water filter picks are perhaps the most limited for more serious trail use. While we love the Patagonia Refugio 26L's ability to double as both a trail hauler and a dependable laptop carrier, it lacks a hipbelt—something you’ll definitely want for longer hikes with heavier loads. And though the Platypus DayCap is hard to beat for everyday use, most hikers will prefer a squeeze-style filter for backcountry trips, especially if you need to fill other bottles or reservoirs.
There’s a saying we love: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” The same idea applies here—there’s no such thing as bad gear, just mismatched gear choices. The key to assembling a solid trail-to-town setup is finding your personal balance on the spectrum. Maybe you’re willing to sacrifice a few frontcountry comforts for more backcountry utility, or vice versa. Let our picks serve as a launching point, and fine-tune from there until you land on the mix that best fits your lifestyle.
Is the Trail-to-Town Hiking Kit for You?
If you’re looking for hiking gear that blends backcountry performance with frontcountry utility and style, this is the gear for you. The Trail-to-Town Hiking Kit prioritizes everyday versatility over ultralight efficiency and high-end performance, meaning you’ll trade a bit of technical edge for comfort, performance, and style that fits your whole day. If you’re chasing summit miles or logging backcountry days, you’ll want more specialized equipment (check out our Backpacking Kits). But for the rest of us—the before-work hikers, lunch-break loopers, and anyone who values gear that works hard in multiple environments—this kit hits the sweet spot between practicality and possibility.
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