We asked Perplexity the kinds of questions real hiking boot buyers ask, and recorded which brands it named. Merrell came out on top. When smaller brands were left out of an answer, Merrell was usually the brand named in their place.
We looked at what was visible on and around each brand's pages to see what might explain this. We also want to be clear about where we are only inferring.
Merrell and Salomon were close to each other. The next brand, Hoka, was well behind both. A gap that large, between brands with similar budgets and reach, is worth a closer look.
This article sets out what the data shows. It also marks where the data is firm and where we are making inferences.
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, including the limits of what the data can and cannot show.
How we ran the study
We used one AI assistant: Perplexity Sonar (standard tier). We asked it a fixed set of buyer questions about hiking boots and tracked a set of hiking boot brands. We ran the same questions in weeks 12 and 13 of 2026, the two weeks with complete data for every brand.
For each answer, we saved the opening text where a brand was named. We call these evidence snippets. They show what the AI assistant actually said about a brand. We then coded each snippet for the kinds of facts it mentioned.
Hoka and several other brands have no data for the week before. That is why we only compare weeks 12 and 13.
What we saw
Merrell and Salomon were named in a far larger share of answers than any other brand. Hoka came third, a long way back.
We looked at two things, and they tell slightly different stories.
How often a brand was named. This is the raw count of answers that mention the brand.
How a brand was named. Some answers name a brand as the clear pick. Others list it in passing.
On the raw count, Salomon was named slightly more often than Merrell. But Merrell was more often named as the clear pick, not just listed.
The week-over-week trend
Between week 12 and week 13, Merrell was named more often and Salomon less often.
Hoka had no data in week 11. In week 12 it was not named at all. In week 13 it was named in a large share of answers, with no change we could see in Hoka's own content.
We note this as a volatility finding, not a finding about page content. If a brand's showing on Perplexity can swing that far in one week with no action by the brand, that limits how confidently we can link any brand's current position to its own choices. It is also the main argument for weekly monitoring over a one-off check.
Who was named instead
Oboz was one of the smaller brands in the set. We looked at the buyer questions where Perplexity did not name Oboz.
In most of those answers, Merrell was named instead. Salomon was named in many of them too.
If you're not on the shortlist, someone else is. In this category, it was usually Merrell or Salomon. Explore the research →
We have not yet measured whether the same pattern holds for other smaller brands at this level of detail.
Two kinds of evidence, kept separate
Our data has two kinds of evidence. They must not be mixed up.
A: What the AI assistant said. These are the evidence snippets: what Perplexity wrote when it named a brand. Across the category, the most common facts in those snippets were waterproof claims and spec-style details such as lists of features. Use-case wording, measurements and sole or traction claims came up less often. Mentions of outside reviewers or experts were rare.
B: What was on Merrell's own pages. We read Merrell's product pages with a standard crawler. They were full of measurements. Waterproof claims appeared often. Mentions of outside reviewers or experts appeared far more often than in the category's AI answers. Use-case wording and sole or traction claims were less common.
Merrell's product pages appear to load their specs with JavaScript. Our crawler found no structured spec lists, but a human visitor may see something different.
The biggest gap across both kinds of evidence was outside endorsement. Those mentions were rare in AI answers across the category. They were far more common on Merrell's pages. We see this as a correlation. We do not claim it causes Merrell's lead.
What this suggests for brands named less often
Three areas look worth examining, based on this data.
First, outside endorsement. The gap between how rarely these mentions appear in the category's AI answers and how often they appear on Merrell's pages was the largest difference we found.
Second, waterproof claims early in product copy. This was the most common type of fact in the AI answers we coded.
Third, comparison pages. Pages that compare your brand directly with the brands named in your place ("Brand vs Merrell," "Brand vs Salomon") speak to the questions where you are most often left out.
These are observations from one AI assistant, one category and two weeks of complete data. We keep tracking weekly and will update the findings as the data grows.
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.
Data: weeks 12 to 13, 2026 · hiking boot buyer questions · Perplexity Sonar Envoyra Engine v1.0 · envoyra.com · March 2026