I was in a motorcycle accident that shattered my leg, ankle, and foot, leaving me with limited mobility on my left side.  I love to dance, and have been wanting to take some ballroom dance lessons, but I can never wear any heels again, and wondered about the range of motion limitations that I will have to deal with forever now.  I'm not one to be told "I can't" do anything, so I thought that these shoes, with the suede toe sole would allow me a little more movement than regular sticky-shoes.

I am able to move around better--not great, but not too bad.  The slippery (not too slippery, though) sole allows me more "slide" than a regular shoe, even with the hard leather soles.

The arch support is really nice--I have little to no structural support skeletally in my left foot now, and have to wear special shoes that transfer my weight off of the front of my feet--these do the trick relatively well, and are comfortable.  They equalize my weight across the bridge of my foot instead of placing so much pressure on the front/toes.

Any limitations that I do have are from my physical injuries--not the shoes.  I love these shoes, and have been recommending them to my friends for dancing :)

As far as the size...well, I'm a "true" 8.5.  I am always checking Zappos or other shoe sites for size reviews before I buy online, and my feet are consistently an 8.5...that being said, I followed the directions of the other reviewers here, and I ordered a 10M in black and an 11M in red.  I wanted the black so I could wear them with dresses/skirts (with no socks, but with hose or tights) and the red to wear with jeans (and socks).  They are perfect!

So, if you wear an 8.5, and you want to wear them with hose or tights, get a 10M.  If you want to wear them with socks, get the 11M.  Crazy sizing, but luckily we have this review system so we don't have to be shipping them back and forth until we get it right.

They are very snazzy, too.  I got lots of compliments on them!  :)