AIRANKS — The Authoritative Rankings for AI Web Content

AIRANKS measures AI visibility: we ask AI models real product and service questions, capture the complete answers as immutable observations, and publish what they contain — which brands were mentioned, which domains were cited, and which exact pages were linked. Every domain gets an AIR score from 1–10 (a decile of visibility in the active dataset; 0 means insufficient data), with the methodology in the open.

AIR

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The Question

← all rankings / dataset COBALT

Best hiking boots for beginners

Merrell takes the top spot in 100.0% of resamples. Of 11 ranked brands, only 5 hold a position we'd call firm.

0
answers sampled
0
brands named
1,000
bootstrap resamples

Who AI Cites For This Question

25 cited pages · bars vs the leader

The 9 Best Hiking Boots of 2026: Tested | REI Expert Advicewww.rei.comrei.com/learn/expert-advice/the-be…ml?utm=airanks.net265
How to Choose Hiking Boots and Hiking Shoes | REI Expert Advicewww.rei.comrei.com/learn/expert-advice/hiking…ml?utm=airanks.net160
Best Hiking Boots for Beginners: What to Look For and What to Buy in 2026 | Trailwise Gear | Trailwise Geartrailwisegear.comtrailwisegear.com/articles/best-hi…rs?utm=airanks.net89
Men's Moab 3 Mid Waterproof Hiking Boots | Merrellwww.merrell.commerrell.com/US/en/moab-3-mid-water…ml?utm=airanks.net75
X Ultra 5 Mid Gore-Tex - Men's Hiking Boots | Salomonwww.salomon.comsalomon.com/en-us/shop/product/x-u…ml?utm=airanks.net30
The 9 Best Hiking Shoes of 2026: Tested | REI Expert Advicewww.rei.comrei.com/learn/expert-advice/best-h…ml?utm=airanks.net29
How to Choose Hiking Boots and Hiking Shoes | REI Expert Advicewww.rei.comrei.com/learn/expert-advice/hiking-boots?utm=airanks.net26

The Ranking, With Its Uncertainty

Merrell locked Merrell — ci 1.00–1.00 · n=406 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 95% of answers
Salomon locked Salomon — ci 0.90–0.90 · n=406 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 99% of answers
KEEN locked KEEN — ci 0.80–0.80 · n=406 · 100.0% of resamples held this rank · named in 92% of answers
Lowa locked Lowa — ci 0.70–0.70 · n=406 · 99.3% of resamples held this rank · named in 38% of answers
Columbia contested Columbia — ci 0.50–0.60 · n=406 · 62.6% of resamples held this rank · named in 23% of answers
Hoka contested Hoka — ci 0.50–0.60 · n=406 · 63.1% of resamples held this rank · named in 27% of answers
Oboz locked Oboz — ci 0.40–0.40 · n=406 · 99.7% of resamples held this rank · named in 16% of answers
Altra soft Altra — ci 0.10–0.30 · n=406 · 74.4% of resamples held this rank · named in 5% of answers
Danner unsettled Danner — ci 0.10–0.30 · n=406 · 43.7% of resamples held this rank · named in 3% of answers
La Sportiva contested La Sportiva — ci 0.10–0.30 · n=406 · 50.9% of resamples held this rank · named in 3% of answers
Topo Athletic gathering Topo Athletic — gathering data, n=406. No bootstrap interval yet.

The Incomparability Lattice

what the intervals separate, not what the list claims

An edge means one brand's interval sits strictly above another's — zero overlap. No edge between two brands is not a gap in the drawing, it is the finding: their intervals overlap, and the bootstrap cannot tell them apart. Brands on the same rung are incomparable, not tied — the ranking above orders them anyway because a list has to print a total order; this diagram is the honest version.

Merrell

1.00–1.00

Salomon

0.90–0.90

KEEN

0.80–0.80

Lowa

0.70–0.70

Columbia

0.50–0.60

Hoka

0.50–0.60

Oboz

0.40–0.40

Altra

0.10–0.30

Danner

0.10–0.30

La Sportiva

0.10–0.30