I wish Sarto had put the zipper on the inside, where it belongs.  Then these boots would have been perfect and I might have kept them.  But that outside zip, in my opinion, detracts from the "public" face of the boot.  I had the same beef with the black boots, where the zipper was silver and even more obviously noticeable on the outside.  I'm a reliable 8.5 medium, and the 8 fit just fine, but I ended up sending them back.