The  back of the shoes are a bit higher than usual and mighty stiff.<br />Breaking in takes a couple of days and healing takes a couple of weeks.<br />I never had such a bad breaking-in experience.<br />After I passed that hurdle, I thought the shoes were great - until they started emitting a horribly unbearable skunk-like smell about 4 weeks later.<br />I never ever experienced this in any other shoe.<br />Sure, I bought this on sale, but was probably my most expensive shoe when measured against the small amount of time I was able to wear it for.