One of the gear decisions I obsessed the most over, for my last PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) hike, was the decision to carry two pairs of shoes: a pair of Chaco sandals and a pair of running shoes.
I spend a lot of effort to get my pack weight down, to add a pound and a half was tough. Also, everything has a place in my pack, adding a pair of shoes took an adjustment to my packing.
I brought them because of two realizations: I like to do 30-mile days and my feet hurt after 25.
I thought maybe once I was on the trail for a while, I could send one pair home, but a day never went by that I didn’t have both pairs in use. Some days I would switch shoes at every break.
I never got any blisters and I never spent a night moaning from the pain shooting through my feet, like I did the first time I hiked the PCT. I think it was a pound and a half well spent.