I purchased these shoe stretchers, used them one time on one pair of shoes and they broke. The rod running through the wood is metal, but on the end of it, is a plastic piece. This part of the stretcher broke and now the thing won't screw back together or screw further apart. The metal rod with the plastic piece just turns round and round in full view. This was a complete waste of money. If you look at other reviews on Amazon, for example, the men's equivalent of this shoe stretcher, you will see that this seems to be a common problem with this model. Buy something else and skip these.