I thought these were really cool.  A great retro-cool look (made me want to drink Mai-Tais and listen to cool jazz) but the sizing was not right for my foot, so I returned them.  I tried 2 sizes (I burned up the savings by having to pay return shipping to Amazon - some competing sites don't make you pay to return shoes......); the first my regular size which was too big, and then a half size smaller which was too small.  As popular as these shoes are, my guess is that the problem is with my feet, not the shoes.  It probably could have been helped if the shoes had an extra row of eyelets so the strings would go up just that much higher.  But, I don't blame Clarks for not altering a classic.