I got very sick of paying a lot of money for my Merrill's and having them fall apart prematurely -as in broken toe cap or separating sole. I did a little research and it showed that Salomon had a reputation for a rugged boot. We will have to see about that, but out of the box i thought they were pretty nice. Im not thrilled with the lacing system for one small reason- I have to tuck the excess lace into the lacing of the boot because there is no place for it to go and it would just flop about annoyingly and most probable would be it would get snagged on something (especially during hiking). Other than that, the lace is rugged and the system is speedy as can be.  I wore the boots for a couple hours at first and they made my feet feel weird for a bit, but it seems the foot bed was adjusting to my foot. The next day I wore them all day and they felt great. They are very light and listed as a trail runner, but I wouldn't even think about running in a hiker...there are much better sneaks out there for that job. This is just a very solid and light all day hiker and so far, I'm liking it. I just wish Salomon had the orange and black colors available still- they seem to be long gone, but amazon still has them showing in the pics. If they don't fall apart in a year, Ill be pretty happy, two years and ill be really happy, three years = ecstatic.