Fresh cedar, smells great and will help preserve leather. Proper tension and they fit my wife's small shoes (I ordered small, but she often finds "small" is larger to make women think their feet are smaller-- this designation is spot on). Only negative (and this seems to be true of all cedar shoe trees) is that the back heel area should be rougher so the wood does not spring upward and lose tension when the shoe trees are inserted. Would be a simple solution- roughen the wood or add a small patch of high friction material).