I talked with the people from Merrell and they said that the men's medium and the women's wide are the same size. The shoe gives quite a bit of stability which I need due to broken sesamoid bones in the ball of my feet. I found out that you can wear these in a gym because the soles are rubber. The shoes have good room in the toe section which I need due to the big toe joint having extra boney growth on it. I did need to put in extra cushioning for the ball of my foot due to the broken sesemoid bones in my feet.