My 13 year old is hard on shoes and super picky about what he wears. These shoes fit the bill for him in comfort and style and the price was in line with my budget. Brooks makes a high performing, durable, quality shoe. In the past my son has worn Puma, Nike, Reebok, Adidas...you name it, he's tried it. This Ghost shoe has held up better than any of the other shoes he's worn to date. With a young man growing so fast, in my book there's no excuse for a shoe that wears out before his foot grows out of it. He's been wearing these Brooks for months and they still look sharp and relatively unscathed. Although he wears them almost all the time now, they were originally purchased for cross country. He reports that they are very comfortable for running.