Plate carrier/weighted vest recs and advice

Ready to make the move on something of this nature, mostly for my morning dog walks, but eventually to augment my home body weight exercises.

First consideration is brand - looking at Tribe WOD, TacTec 5.1 and North Gym. Also kinda considering the Hyper Wear vest (uses multiple small steel weights instead of plates and fits more like a down vest). I don't necessarily care about cost as the difference in those is not that much, more concerned about quality, fit and comfort, but that being said, I don't want to spend money unnecessarily.

Second - weights. Any inherent advantage broadly of plate carriers vs. HyperWear type of garment? Also what about starting weight - 14, 20 or 30lbs? For reference, I'm 5'9" 155lbs, conditioned for everyday non-weighted brisk walks about 2 mi daily and about 110 flights of stairs generally 5 days a week. I like the idea of the North Gym's contoured plates, but suppose I could just buy their plates and use in one of the other brand garments if I so desired.

Third - for walks, I've read you need to wear hiking shoes instead of running shoes, is this gospel, or depends on amount of weight or doesn't matter at all?

Thanks for any info and I realise this is a long and detailed post (but it's not the OT, so maybe I won't get skewered for it )