brother, see, trekking shoe,, actual trekking shoe of worldly recoganized companies like northface, asolo, nike, addidas, technica, kelty, gregery and many more are worth 150$ to 300$... high class trekking shoes are much more expensive... so most of us can get them as a gift else we have to lower our standards. coming to CAt and other shoes, these are basically protection shoes for oil fields, though they are meant for rugged environment and are powerful but yet, they have some weight.
now if we have to chose a trekking shoe, there is an alternate. as i quoted in my earlier post in Rana Shair dil thread. roam in to bazars of skardu (old shops for mountaineering and trekking gear.) numerous expeditions use their gear just for one time (for their expedition) and on return (to remove the luggage) they sell these stuff in bazars.
finding a good quality shoe (it is not that hard to find but u should be knowing basic properties of a shoe) from there i, by myself, have baught one korean trekking shoe that cost only 1700 ruppee (you can see that shoe in my destiny 2012 part 2 deosai thread and in the recent road trip to ghizar and hunza). Though i do have addidas as well but as a gift
coming to the basic properties of trekking shoe...
1. waterproofing: well, leather made shoes are a bit heavy. pure trekking shoe consists of gore tax lining. understanding gore tax u can say that this is a cloth that works as human skin. sweat can come out of ur skin but water cant enter your skin. this cloth works the same, it throws out ur sweat and dont allow water to come inside the shoe. any shoe having a sticker of GORE-TAX in old bazaars is worth having.. check if inner lining is not torn out.
2. comfort level: every foot has a different shape. a shoe that dont squeeze sides of ur foot, and provide some room for your fingers is good. if it is covering ur ankles as well then much better. must remember that u will be wearing thick socks on trek (forgetting the name of cloth by which trekking socks are made off).
3. Lacing system is another property of a good shoe, at the end of a long days trek, one feel much irritation in doing necessary but boreing things. while during a trek, if laceing system is not that good, it can irritate u to change knots time and again. Take a shoe that have simple and full coverage lacing system.
besides goretax there are many other clothes as well like sympatax etc... anyways, such lining is unnecessary when u are walking in warm, dry and deserty regions.
from skardu bazaars u can get a good shoe ranges from 2000 to 4000 rupee which actually worth 250$ or so... all u need is to search and spare an extra day in the bazaars.
u also can get branded tents from bazaar. one of my friend baught a 2men north face tent in 12000 rupee. and it is almost new.
i hope certain answers are given... and it is a good thing to discuss equipment... in the same manner, a sleeping bag is a must and how and what kind to buy is another topic.....