I had seen these shoes for a couple years in various stores, and had always had good luck with Birkenstock products, but wasn't willing to shell out the 160 dollar price tag which local Birk stores wanted for these shoes. Then I found them on overstock.com and nabbed them up quickly. I work in a restaurant on my feet all day, so the special soles these have are great, not the normal birk bottoms.I am a ten 1/2 shoe which was a problem because they only carry whole sizes. I got a ten and had to return them for an eleven; the return process was easy and I got my credit back to my account in a decent amount of time. These shoes look great, are built tough and I know will last a long time, my only complaint is they are taking a long time to break in... it's been almost three weeks and they're still not quite there yet... I know it will take time so just keep using them daily. I am pleased with them overall and can't believe I saved over 70 dollars off the retail price!!.