I have always purchased Stride Rite shoes for my kids, and have always been extremely pleased with the quality of these shoes, however, i feel these were either damaged or not really Stride Rite.  This pair ran extremely small.  I purchased these to replace a size 6 that was beginning to become tight on my son, and they are smaller!!!  There is a major defect in the back of this shoe that does not allow a good fit.  My son suffers whenever we try to put these on, so we decided to donate then to charity.  Living in the Dominican Republic, returning them would have costed as much as the shoes, so waste of money big  time.  Will look into a different pair from another vendor to see if we have better luck....