I ordered these as a gift for someone else. They were indeed Tamarac, as described. In other words, I did NOT have the same problem that the previous reviewer had.

I am unable to comment on sizing since these were a gift, but the quality seems to be fairly good just from looking at them. (I ordered these in Chocolate.) The box says that they are made of cowhide.

They also came well-packaged. Each shoe has one of the sizing/shaping rods in it and is individually wrapped in plastic inside of a shoebox. (The shoebox came inside one of Amazon's larger boxes.)