I honestly cannot think of a more comfortable pair of boots...*right* from day 1. Thank you, Amazon reviewers, for pointing me to these, as I desperately needed a pair for a long trip to Italy, but few stores carry my size and a design that allows your foot to be relatively flat (I cannot use footwear that puts my feet at an angle) while giving you more than an inch of heel at the same time. I bought these based on very high ratings on the internet, and love them so much I'm going to buy another pair. The sad thing is that this particular design may have been discontinued by Merrell (can't figure out why!) and replaced by their very similar, but without the foam layer, "Angelic Peak boots," so I'm going to have to buy my second pair on some other internet site.