And while men are hopping on the trend, too, those in the industry say it’s incredibly popular among women specifically. Teri Levy founded her brand Rukstr, which sells both a weighted vest and a weighted backpack, in June 2024, and has seen sales skyrocket.
“Since January 2025, our sales have tripled month over month, and we’ve sold out of our weighted vest five times since launch, with demand continuing to outpace supply,” she says.
Levy notes that they have found that 99.9% of their customers are women—a statistic that bears out in the reviews on their website, which are filled with photos of women wearing their vests in the wild.
“This surge is closely tied to more women incorporating rucking and weighted walking into their routines, and it aligns with broader conversations about midlife and older women seeking accessible, effective ways to build strength and support bone health,” she says.
Levy is referencing another interesting component of the trend—its growing popularity among women going through perimenopause or menopause. On social media, weighted walking has become known specifically for this age group as a low-impact way to help with bone density and strength through hormonal changes.
“The weighted vest can be really helpful because when your hormones fluctuate as you get older, you see a decrease in estrogen, you see a decrease in progesterone,” says Kennedy. “So what happens is we start to see a decrease in our bone density. Wearing a weighted vest is resistance training.… When you’re strength training or doing resistance training, you’re basically counteracting or slowing down the potentiality of bone loss.”
If you’re convinced, Kennedy has a few tips, like how much weight to start with.
“The general rule of thumb is 5% to 10% of your body weight historically works for a certain population, but anything under 15 pounds is a good place to start,” she says. “If you’re wearing it for a 30- or 60-minute walk or a hike, you could potentially go a little bit higher, especially if you already have a strong foundation of strength training.”
She also recommends not adding a weighted vest to your walk if you are dealing with a chronic injury that could be exacerbated by adding weight to your chest or back, or if you’re pregnant. She also says she’s been asked if it’s a good idea to wear the vest during other activities like indoor cycling or yoga, and she doesn’t recommend it.
But mostly, Kennedy is excited to see walking—an activity that is safe, effective, and accessible to most people—take its rightful place among all the other types of exercise.
“It’s like, okay, finally we’re celebrating something that has longevity and accessibility and long-term optionality for so many people, and this is just another tool,” she says of weighted vests. “It’s going to be a tool to enhance or amplify what you’re already doing.”