I have been teaching tap for 17 years; I've seen a lot of tap shoes, good and bad. Ones that fall apart, taps that sound terrible. I LOVE these tap shoes. My 9 year old needed new shoes for class. This will be our 3rd pair of the jr tyette. We have tried several other brands since she was 3 and these are by far the best. They are durable and hold up for the entire dance year. Her old ones are still in great enough condition to pass on to her younger sister (more money saved). The taps sound great and you cannot beat the price!! I can't say enough about this shoe. They are not professional grade but for students, young or old, they are great. And to the complaints of not being true to street size, dance shoes seldom are. Fault Amazon's description of sizing, not the shoe company. Last year my daughter was a 2 street size, and happened to wear a 2N (narrow) in the tap shoe. This year she moved past children's sizes and into women's. She is a 3 street shoe and 6N in the women's tap shoe.