I am a former New Balance regular, having switched to wearing Asics over the past several months because I was running into quality control issues with the New Balance brand too frequently.

What impressed me most about this particular Asics shoe is that it is well cushioned.  I have tried a few other Asics shoes that also have gel heels that weren't as comfortable as this pair, which not only has a well cushioned heel but also good arch support.

I noticed that a number of reviewers have complained about sizing.  It appears that most of the complaints have come from people ordering widths wider than "D."  I wear a 9.5D and found these shoes to fit just fine.

Maybe I just got a bad pair, but the reason I rated this shoe only four stars is that they have a fair amount of what looks like blue ink dots on the outside sole.  It looks like someone took a blue magic marker and pressed down on the soles scores of time, but only on the inside facing surfaces.  I decided not to return them because I doubt anyone else will really notice and I didn't want to deal with the exchange process, but it seems like a mid-priced shoe like this shouldn't come new with an obvious manufacturing defect like this -- even at the Gold Box price I got when I ordered these a couple of weeks ago.