diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 082208b..e7caa5a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ python:
   - "2.7"
   - "3.5"
 install:
+  - pip install --upgrade pip
   - pip install -r requirements.txt
 # command to run tests
 script: python setup.py test
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 09e14be..5012a5c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-pip>=8.1
+pip>=7.0
 docutils>=0.3
 numpy>=1.11
 scipy>=0.17