The shoes have been fine since I found out how to stop them from squeaking.  This is a problem many Merrell owners complain about.  For me, only my right shoe squeaked. The left shoe has never squeaked.  The right shoe squeak was barely audible at first, but after three weeks, it was becoming loud enough that I knew I could not live with it.  I was ready to return them to Amazon, but fortunately I did some research first that allowed me to solve the problem.  I've now owned the shoes two months and am completely satisfied.

The way I solved the problem was to place two dryer sheets (fabric softener sheet) under the insole of the squeaking shoe. I was skeptical that it would work, but the squeaking stopped immediately and five weeks later, there's still no squeaking.  I've read that another solution is to sprinkle some talcum powder under the insole.

I bought the traditional round-lug Moc rather than the Vibram sole.  If I used the shoe for hiking, I'd have gotten the Vibram sole, but I prefer a lace-up shoe for rugged terrain.  I wear these as my everyday shoe.  They're perfect for that.  When I'm on the trail, I use hiking boots or running shoes.

I bought the Jungle Mocs to replace a pair of imitation Jungle Mocs (Hathaway Comfort Mocassins) that I wore for six years and that held up well, but were never comfortable.  The Merrells are a huge improvement in comfort over the imitations.  I hope they hold up as well as the imitation mocs I was wearing before.

I considered docking a star for the squeaking, but it was so easily solved that I decided to give the shoes a full five stars.