My husband has Keen boots. He purchased them to wear hiking, but since he tried trail runners, he only wears the Keen boots at work. He prefers the trail runners for hiking and backpacking. Reasons? Keen boots: not as giving as runners; plus, the gortex meant they were difficult to dry out and let's face it... if you are REALLY out on the trail, your feet will get soaked to the point that waterproof shoes don't help--- they actually are worse because once wet, they don't dry! The Trail runners would dry out about 2 hours after walking through a stream...

NOTE: he LOVES the Keen boots for work, where he doesn't need to walk for hours in the rain or traverse a stream. In that scenario, the Gortex is King!