The red shade is divine. DIVINE I tell ya! I lusted for these for awhile and did my due diligence reading reviews all over the Web. I'm a true size US 9 and based on being at the tail end of El Naturalista's 39, I decided I'd give my toes a break and order the 40. Big mistake, the boot swallowed me. Returned for a 39 only to barely be able to cram into it. Confusing. I have a pretty easy to fit foot so how I managed to be perfectly between sizes, with neither sizes being comfy or properly fitting, just floored me. But they're sooo unique looking and gorgeous I decided to keep them. I was prepared for some toe pain, but not for how difficult the laces turned out to be. Ideally, due to the side zip, you should pretty much be able to lace these once and be done with it. My problem lies with the gap between the top part of the laces and the bottom part of the laces...it causes the leather to horribly bulge at the ankle, giving a gout-like appearance. Now I'm a big girl but my one skinny part are my ankles. These manage to fit so unflatteringly that it's back to the drawing board to see if lacing them differently than they arrived will fix the slack at the ankle. The tongue is a beautiful quality leather but unless I cinch it just right, it twists and folds into itself and just exacerbates the ankle bulge. These may be the most frustrating boots I have ever owned! But I am determined to make them work. The heel height is ideal, the sole a very secure feeling non slip, and did I mention the gorgeous color? But darn if the laces, much like ones on figure skates, just don't cooperate and the sizing is off IMO. Anytime a shoe claims to cover a whole size, that's tricky. Hopefully you'll be more lucky.