I had this pair of wool gloves with suede or leather palms. The wool was pretty good but the suede or leather palms made them worthless. Some trail runners are the same way. Its ok if they are not waterproof. What's not ok is when they make your wool socks even wetter and colder than if you were hiking in just the wool socks. In warm weather it doesn't matter too much, and there might even be some benefit to cold wet sneakers as opposed to warm wet sneakers, but in cold rain and wet snow, like say 10F to 50F, I think you want trail runners that absorb and hold as little water as possible, but the type of material matters also, as in wool-like vs cotton-like. It might be harder to find a good fit if there is less of that padding, but I don't think the padding is neccessarry with a good fit, especially once its cold enough for medium or thick socks.