FAQs
Typically Hilmas will leave our warehouse within a couple days of your order being places. At busy times, it could be just a little longer, but we’ll give you a heads up whenever we can.
We offer free ground shipping. Can’t wait to meet your Hilmas? We offer the option to expedite shipping at a cost.
With the exception of items marked final sale, we offer free returns and exchanges within 30 days of purchase. To start a return or an exchange, please email support@join-hilma.com
We take your Hilmas back within 30 days, and that includes if you’ve taken them for a test run. We want you to feel empowered to feel out your Hilmas as you need. From a sustainability standpoint, unworn shoes are the easiest to rehome either by going to another customer, or through options like donations, but we understand that sometimes you need to wear them in the wild to know.
Hilma customers are in all 50 states, and we currently ship throughout the US. We’re often keeping track of requests to launch into new countries, so please reach out to us at support@join-hilma.com if there’s somewhere you’d like to see us expand to.
Hilmas are available exclusively on our site. We offer free exchanges and returns if you try them and want to make a swap.
Your Hilmas will ship from just outside Chicago.
Think bra sizing, but for your running shoes!
Hilma was born to create super high performance running shoes for you. To make that happen, we knew that fit was the absolute foundation of feeling good on your biggest adventures.
We take into account not just the traditional size of your foot, but the best shape-match for you too. Need a wide to box? We’ve got that — that’s our Fit Two. A narrower, more tapered toe box better match you? We’ve got that too—that’s our Fit One. Need more room in heel, midfoot, and more volume in the toe box? That’s Fit Three.
You can either browse our Fit Model here, and see the difference between our three Fits, or, take a 3-minute quiz that’ll help figure out the perfect fit running shoe for you.
For every size, Hilma has multiple fits, and each one has it’s own dimensions. At launch, we have three fits - The Fit One, The Fit Two and the Fit Three. Your right fit will depend on the shape of your foot, the length and volume, as well as your own preferences for feel.
Everything that’s produced on earth has an impact, so we feel it’s our responsibility to minimize that environmental impact where we can without sacrificing on performance. Hilmas have bio-based materials where possible, like our sugarcane-based EVA midsole. We also design Hilmas carefully so that each material has a performance purpose. This cuts back on excess waste in the manufacturing process.
Yes, Hilmas are vegan. None of our materials, including our adhesives, use animal products or byproducts.
Hilmas were crafted to be incredibly comfortable for adventures of every distance. Our customers run marathons and ultramarathons in their Hilmas, and they also run 5ks, walk the dog, and hustle around the city.
Hilmas aren’t custom made. Custom shoes with today’s manufacturing would be incredibly expensive, and frankly, we found we didn’t need them. Hilma offers a revolutionary fit model that takes into account multiple shapes and volumes of feet, kind of like with bras. We manufacture them in a big order like other shoe companies, bring them into our warehouse, and when you take our fit quiz, your perfect Hilma ships straight to you.
For a long time, gait analysis has not been supported by biomechanics research as a selection tool for running shoes. This includes both a number of different studies, and a meta-analysis that looked at those studies, and the big brands are aware of this too. What is supported by research is the importance of selecting a running shoe that you feel comfortable in. We hope whatever shoe you wear, it’s one that you feel good in. There’s lots of good reading on this if you’d like to explore more.
There are real differences between women’s and men’s feet on average, and whoever you are, having a shoe that feels good on you is important! On average, women tend to have smaller volume heels, and lower ankle bones. Women also, on average, tend to have higher arches than men, and narrower feet. Not all women’s sized running shoes are made for women, unfortunately. Sometimes, they’re the men’s shoes, just shrunken down. A sign that your running shoe was first made for men could be that your heel slips in it, that the collar hits your ankle bones, that you experience top of foot pain from the lacing on the shoes (due to your higher arch pushing into the lacing), or that it feels a bit sloppy overall on you, despite being the right length. Despite these averages, there is real range in women’s feet, just like in women’s bodies! Each Hilma Fit considers different shapes of feet for women specifically, allowing you to match yourself into the right dimensions. Nearly 90% of women find a Hilma fit that’s comfortable on them, and spanning that range was so important to us.
Hilma’s Everywhere is a road-to-trail hybrid - meaning in it you can confidently tackle the roads, whether paved or dirt, you can party on to gravel and rolling terrain, up to moderately technical trail. The outsole on the Hilma Everywhere is optimized for moving forward at any speed, with secure grip on those outside environments.
Hilma is female-founded with a stacked team of women in leadership across our team. Brooke, our CEO and founder, spent more than 10 years running distances from 5ks to ultramarathons and was never excited about the running shoe choices in the market. The product team that designs and engineers Hilmas came from the biggest brands out there. They were in leadership roles in innovation, design and development at companies including Nike, Brooks, On and more.
Hilmas are designed in the US. Our product office is in Portland OR, and we have team members across the country.
We’re hiring for select roles, and we’d love to hear from you if Hilma’s mission sounds like a fit for you too.
Hilma has been featured in places like Runner’s World, Outside, WSJ, Harper’s Bazaar and many more publications. You can also see what other customers think about their Hilmas in our reviews.