I bought the boots in natural and received them a couple of days ago.  They look good, and they felt comfortable when I put them on for a few minutes.  I have not gone out with them or walk a long distance with them yet.  I was surprised, however, when I took the boots out of the box and noticed the ends of the laces were wrapped twice around the boots!  Amazon's pictures show that the lace goes up to the top but there is no knot on top. That made me think the lace was decorative especially because the boots have a zipper.  Well, the lace is not decorative and it's awfully long.  You can't really make a bow out of it; that looks awful, and you still end up with a long end hanging from the bow.  If you like the boots enough to keep them, your best recourse would be to hide the extra lace inside the boots or maybe cut the lace short.