Returned these to Merrell. The top lace hooks are plastic which is common, but they also made the system for riveting them to the boot plastic and they broke off of the shoes within two weeks. They were worn by a 12 year old. The price at Amazon had risen substantially and I would have lost $ so I contacted Merrill for replacement. They did not have them in stock so offered another model which turned out to be a plus for all of my efforts. This took days of cryptic emails and me sending photos.  I also had to cut the tongues out of the faulty pair to make them unusable and send more photos back which is a hassle when they are the boots you need to wear NOW. Leaves you bootless.
 I've had dozens of Merrell boots. I feel the quality has gone down recently.