I can hardly believe I am writing this and am a little trepidatious because I don't want to jinx it...but these shoes are letting me run like I used to.  I'm finally truly getting back into running for fitness after having kids.  MTP pain (big toe joint) bothered me on and off for years, whether running or not; I've been told to just not run, to use orthotics, I've had surgery that didn't work...the pain doesn't ruin my life but worried me about running a lot as it was indeed worsening as I ran longer and faster.

I tried other regular running shoes recommended by shoe store experts for my toe issue, tried various insoles, and tried the hard carbon insert thing.  None really solved the problem, but this shoe seems to be doing the trick.  I can run 5 miles easy without any significant post-run toe pain. Much better than before.  I don't plan on returning to running anything more than a 10k, but if I can do that several days a week without awful toe pain thanks to these goofy looking shoes, that'll be wonderful.

I have narrow feet, size 10 but I get an 11 in running shoes, and am tall and normal weight. I did also force myself to stop wearing heels or any other shoes that really aggravated my toe pain altogether, so by using these shoes and making that change at the same time, I can't say for sure how much each factor contributes to the improvement.

Finally, my pain was always one foot and I never even thought about the other.  As I progressed with running, the non-affected foot started hurting too, which was really disconcerting.  Since these shoes, nothing in the "new" foot at all. Hooray!