I bought these shoes about 5 months ago and initially liked them. Not like a traditional Rockport, these have a hard heel and a portion of the sole is leather. My foot pain got progressively worse after wearing these off an on for a couple of months. I began having a significant amount of pain in the center of my left heel. I never connected it to the shoes since it was so progressive, but after it got worse and worse I began inspecting the shoes more carefully. I took out the removable foot-bed lining and saw a very small thin blue gel layer in the heel. It is so small it really can't do much good. I noticed that the middle of the blue gel was worn away. Underneath this layer was the head of a fairly large screw protruding above the footbed of the shoe. Bingo! Foot pain problem solved. I can't believe the poor design and construct of this shoe. I hope I don't have permanent foot damage from wearing this horrible product. On top of that, the leather started cracking and the surface layer began rubbing off after a couple of months of wear. This is a TERRIBLE shoe!!!