Which brands AI recommends, and why most are left out.
This is our first quarterly AI Visibility Snapshot for hiking boots. It is not an index. It is a point-in-time look at which brands AI assistants name when buyers ask buying questions. It also looks at how the named brands differ from the rest.
We asked Perplexity the same set of buyer questions each week for three weeks in March 2026, and tracked a set of hiking boot brands. A typical brand was rarely named. For most brands in this category, AI discovery is not a weak channel. It barely exists.
Summary
Merrell and Salomon were named far more often than anyone else. A typical brand was rarely named, and some brands were never named at all. Mentions of outside reviewers or experts were rare in the AI answers.
The most striking finding: Arc'teryx was never named, in any answer, in any week. It is a premium outdoor brand with wide retail reach and loyal customers. None of that showed up in AI answers.
Arc'teryx's product pages lead with brand story rather than plain specs. We can observe that. We can't prove it is why the brand was left out.
Disclosure: Envoyra sells the AI visibility scanning tool used to collect this data. We have a financial interest in findings that show the value of AI visibility measurement. The method is set out in full below. Underlying scan data is available to clients and press on request.
Brand heritage did not carry over into AI answers. If Arc'teryx can be left out, so can you. Explore the research →
Who AI named most
Two brands stood apart: Merrell and Salomon. Then came a long gap before the next group, led by Hoka, Danner and Keen. A longer tail followed, including La Sportiva, Vasque, Oboz, Lowa and Scarpa.
Several well-known names were rarely named, including Columbia, The North Face and Timberland. Arc'teryx was never named.
The category has a clear top tier (Merrell and Salomon) and then everyone else.
What the named brands' pages had in common
We looked at the product pages of the most-named brands for specific kinds of content:
- Waterproof claims. Named waterproof technologies and ratings. - Plain spec lists. Specs laid out in a list or table, not buried in prose. - Use cases. Clear statements of what terrain or trip the boot is for. - Measurements. Weights, heights and other numbers on the page. - Outside endorsement. Mentions of reviewers, testers or awards from other sources.
The top brands were well ahead of the category on the first four. Merrell and Salomon led on most of them.
Outside endorsement was different. Danner led there, and Merrell trailed several rivals. That makes it the one area where Merrell's pages were not ahead.
These are correlations. They describe what the most-named brands' pages had in common. They do not prove why AI named those brands.
Week-to-week swings
AI answers are not stable. Hoka gave the clearest example. On backpacking questions, it jumped sharply from week 11 to week 12 with no change to its content. It then fell back much of the way from week 12 to week 13.
Salomon is worth watching. It was named most often in week 11. By week 13, Merrell was more often named as the clear pick, not just listed.
The mid-tier brands moved around a lot from week to week. A single week's result is unreliable for these brands. Look at trends over four weeks or more before drawing conclusions.
Who was named instead
When a mid-tier brand was left out of an AI shortlist, who was named in its place?
Most often, Merrell. Salomon came next. Often both were named together.
Mid-tier brands are not losing to a wide field. They are losing to the same two rivals, on the same kinds of questions, week after week.
The pattern is steady. Mid-tier brands were left out most often on questions that call for named waterproof technology, side-by-side specs or a specific terrain. Those are the same areas where their pages had less to show than Merrell's.
Where the gaps were widest
Backpacking. Few brands were named at all. Merrell and Salomon took most of the recommendations. Most brands do not publish load-bearing specs on their pages.
Women's-specific boots. Very few brands were named. AI answers tended to fall back on unisex picks. Many brands publish only colour variants rather than distinct women's specs.
Budget (under $120). Many brands were left out. The brands aimed at budget buyers often have thin product pages.
Trail running crossover. The fastest-growing type of question. Hoka and Salomon led. Their pages speak directly to both hiking and running.
Winter and ice. Brands with named ice-grip soles or temperature ratings led. "Great for cold weather" was not enough to be named.
Five patterns we observed
These patterns held across the answers we recorded. They are observations, not rules about how AI works.
1. Specific beats vague. "Waterproof to 24-hour submersion" appeared where "legendary waterproof protection" did not. Brands with more measurements on their pages were named more often.
2. Lists beat prose. Brands with clear spec lists were named more often than brands with long, evocative copy.
3. Outside voices matter. A trusted review with clear specs showed up in AI answers more than a pile of social posts.
4. Absence is silent. There is no error message when AI leaves your brand out. No ranking drop. Every other metric looks normal while you are missing from the answers above them.
5. Early movers may pull ahead. Brands that track this now can see shifts as they happen. Brands that don't are working without that view while rivals keep showing up.
Method and limits
Data source: Envoyra Engine v1.0, Perplexity Sonar. Weekly scans over three weeks (weeks 11 to 13), March 2026.
Buyer questions: a fixed set each week, covering day hiking, backpacking, trail running, winter hiking, women's-specific, budget and premium.
Brand detection: we checked each answer's text for each brand name, ignoring case. AI answers vary from run to run, so results may differ slightly between identical scans. One AI assistant only. The patterns above are observations, not proof of cause. Trends over four weeks or more are more reliable than one week.
Envoyra Engine v1.0 · Perplexity Sonar · March 2026
Explore the research
Most brands assume they show up in AI recommendations. Many don't.
The research shows which brands are named, which are left out and how the two groups differ.