I walk in my neighborhood about an hour a day, and I have comfortable sneakers which are great. But there are canals and levies I can walk beside and on, and I didn't do it because the grass is sometimes wet or tall, and my sneakers would get soaked or get dirty, plus twigs and whatnot would stick to my shoes and socks or even get inside my shoes. It was a pain. I ordered some hiking boots for this reason, and found the padding around the ankles of hiking boots is uncomfortable to me. I wear Skechers sneakers, so I even ordered Skechers hiking boots to be sure I got the right size and knew they would be comfortable ... and they weren't. That traditional hiking boot style is just not right for me! Then I saw these, and it looked like the padding was up higher than the ankles, and was not as thick as the ankle padding around regular hiking boots, so I wanted to give them a try. They are perfect! They were comfortable right out of the box. First day I walked 2 miles, and they were comfortable, no blisters, fantastic. I've worn them several days now, hiked along 2 levies, and they've been great. Water resistant, no twigs or pebbles getting in my shoes. Love them. You can tell in the photos, I don't lace them all the way to the top. Maybe my large ankles are the problem and not the hiking boots, but when I lace them to the top, I have to tighten them too much for comfort to have enough shoestring to tie them securely! But even with only lacing them up to the second eyelet, they are still perfectly comfortable and work great walking in wet grass, etc. No complaints. Based on the reviews here, I went up half a size. My Skechers are size 7, and I ordered these in size 7-1/2, and they fit perfectly. I also ordered hiking socks, whatever Amazon's choice was, and those are a must because my regular socks wouldn't be tall enough. My recommendation: buy these 1/2 size large and wear them with hiking socks. You will enjoy your walks! I don't actually do hiking in mountains and deserts, but for sort of urban hiking/walking, they're great!
