These are the nicest athletic or outdoor shoes I've gotten in quite a while. They are extremely comfortable out of the box, providing support via their shape instead of being stuffed with foam rubber. They're a great match for walking or hiking, and they are one of my standard pairs now when I travel. There seems to be some kind of springy piece in the center of the heel area, which provides good cushioning as well as additional heel support.

The sole is covered with small nubbins about 4 or 5 millimeters across - one of the pictures shows them. They provide outstanding traction in just about any condition you can name. They will get small rocks or seeds in between the nubbins on occasion - I have grown accustomed to removing hackberry seeds from mine after spending time outside.

They look good. The Cat logo is very subdued. The ventilation holes double as good looking decorations and I think even help give the upper some additional flex.

Even though they are Caterpillar brand, they're made by Wolverine, which also makes several other premium shoe brands, such as Patagonia.

As with just about every other shoe I've gotten in the last ten years, they have nylon shoelaces that have a tendency to come untied. I guess such laces wear better, and are probably cheaper than pure cotton laces. Personally, my advice to premium brand manufacturers would be to charge a bit more and perhaps include a spare pair of laces so that the darn things stay tied. That problem was solved a couple of hundred years ago, and it seems silly to go backwards to shoes that I have to tie all the time.

But given that all shoes seem to have the same problem, I won't take away a star for that. After three months of wearing these, I like them enough to give them a very high recommendation.