It's become an almost knee-jerk reaction to simply recommend any number of UL and lightweight shoes and boots for people who are carrying base weights well in excess of what light travelers aim for; many folks setting out to engage in more traditional camping and backpacking activities are, perhaps, being steered in the wrong direction.
Here's what Ultralight hiking and backpacking actually consists of: a base weight of roughly 12 pounds or less. If you're carrying a tent, a stove, sleeping bag, pad, etc., you're not really going UL and putting trail runners on your feet may represent the wrong tool for the job.
Let's think about it from the perspective of distances you want to hike per day:
If you're aiming for 25-35 miles per day for many days on end you will need to go UL and you will need UL footwear. However, if you're aiming at 20 miles or less per day and want to travel with some degree of comfort (more than a bare-bones kit) or even 'luxury' items then you're not going UL and trail runners are not really the footwear that best meet your needs.
Geography and weather are also considerations. If you're aiming to hike or backpack over varied terrain in all four seasons, the classic "big heavy boot" is still the king of the trail. They're chunky and heavier for a number of reasons: thicker and wider outsoles for better stability and greater load-bearing qualities; thicker treads for superior traction in rough conditions; enhanced ankle support; thick leather for abrasion resistance and possibly a Goretex liner for dealing with moisture; burly lacing systems for customizing fit; rubber toe rands for saving leather and feet from sharp rocks and so on.
If your goal for the year is put a couple hundred miles behind you with minimal gear or aiming for hundreds of miles during a single through-hike then you might be the right person to go with some trail runners but if you're a section or thru-hiker carrying, say, 30 pounds or more of gear for 12 to 20 miles per day then you might be better served with some trekkers. I've worn a lot of shoes and boots but as the miles grew longer and the loads became heavier I decided it was better to 'graduate' up from shoes and light hikers and just go with trekking boots that I could wear year-round slogging through deep mud, plowing through snow with snowshoes, crossing shallow creeks and streams, stumbling over wet tree roots, bushwhacking, as well as striding the well-worn path.
But they're big and heavy! Yeah, but you will adapt. It takes a couple of weeks to build your legs up in order to adapt to the additional weight but I think a good pair of trekking boots represent the best all-season solution to hiking and backpacking footwear. They're going to cost more and take longer to break in but I think you save money in the long run and they will keep you on the trail longer.
The "big heavy boot" does not represent an anachronistic holdover from an earlier era of hiking and backpacking -- they are still very much the right tools for a lot of people.
