I was reluctant to purchase these shoes because of the air pockets. I decided that if the product made it to the shelf it should hold up ok. It took my child 1 day with these shoes to where off the tread on one of the heal air pockets. The cause of the air pocket failure was going down the slide at the park which created friction and basically rubbed off the air pocket. My child went down the slide only a few times. No more Sketchers for us. This is our second fail from this company. The Nike shoes my other child had on did not even a rub mark from the slide.