I am a flight attendant and I have bought these shoes each year for the past 3 years. We are required to have a certain style of shoe which these are and they are comfortable so I can walk my usual fast pace through airports. The patent leather gives a nice polished look but still has a good bend unlike a lot of others patent leathers. I wear a true size 7 and these run a little larger which is fine because in the air and or after a long day feet swell. They will stretch a bit which for me is also good because then I put in simple gel inserts for additional padding. As I mentioned I have bought them each year because that's about the life expectancy. I am hard on these shoes and they do start to break down (i.e. patent leather starts cracking because it is softer, leather pulling away from shoe...) but I would expect that from any shoe given the circumstances. I would definitely recommend these if you're in the market for a comfortable professional looking shoe.