First I want to commend New Balance for continuing to provide shoes for people with truly wide feet. There are very few options available to us!

With regard to this boot, the width and fit on the foot were perfect for me. It is a well built boot and mostly performed well on a recent 36 mile backpacking trip. However I did have one significant problem which forces me to give it a 3 rather than a 5 rating. The boot uppers along the outside on both boots caused serious rubbing above the ankle to the point where I was getting jabbing pains with every step after hiking a number of miles. The problem could not be solved by either loosening or tightening the laces. Some 20 miles into my trip, after two days of pain, I made the necessary, but not desired, decision to cut away a portion of the boot that was causing the problem. Pretty sad to have to ruin such a nice shoe, but it did away with the physical pain. Someone else has posted a similar complaint on this boot.

If you are going to buy these I would suggest trying them at home for a while and if you have even the slightest rubbing above the ankle, send em back! The problem will not go away but will get worse.